Strike The Box!
by thisissparta789789
Summary: A year after a post-graduation tragedy kills Pyrrha, the rest of Team RWBY, as well as Ren, join Weiss in a fire company that her family has fought fires with for many years. Combined with personal issues, hunting missions, and inner demons, they will all be in for a wild ride. (Rated M for swearing, graphic violence, non-explicit sexual content, and depictions of mental illness.)
1. Season 1: Part 1

Weiss Schnee had just graduated from Beacon a month earlier, coming in 3rd place for the highest grades in her class. Aged 21 going on 22, and now a huntress for the Valeanian Hunting Corps, one of the most unique branches of Vale's military forces, she often worked at her father's company in various roles in between hunting missions. She had gone to 3 hunting missions so far. She had requested to have her fellow classmates, consisting of Teams RWBY and JNPR, to be put in the same platoon as her, which was accepted. Jaune became the Lieutenant of the platoon. Ruby was second in command of the platoon, being ranked as a Staff Sergeant.

Now, the Schnees were well-known for operating the largest dust-mining companies in the world. They were also well-known in the city of Vale for their association with Vigilant Fire Company 5, nicknamed "The Vigilants." They often would pour money into the volunteer-based fire company, enabling it to afford the newest equipment and keep up with the city's paid firefighters that they worked alongside. This obviously meant that many Schnees were also firefighters for the company.

Weiss was no exception. She had joined on as a junior member when she was 12, often doing traffic control duty at fires. When she was away at Beacon, she would write letters to the company's members about her studies. She had a lot of training under her belt, from both before and after her time at Beacon. However, she was very determined to reach her goals on her own without her family's help or influence, which was hard considering not just the fact that her family was wealthy, but also because she had many other relatives in the 84-strong company.

Weiss did sometimes accept her family's assistance, such as when she helped buy Ruby, Blake, and Yang their apartments in the same apartment block she lived in. It helped that the Schnees lived in the Vigilant's area, a rather wealthy city neighbourhood, though their company's headquarters was in the Atlas Kingdom due to safety concerns and because the Schnees originally came to Vale from Atlas over a century and a half ago.

* * *

**_July 28, 2019_**

The team had been hanging out at Yang and Ruby's apartment for most of the day. Weiss had muted her pager so that it wouldn't go off almost every half-hour due to the many medical calls her company's paid personnel did on the ambulance. Yang remarked, "You know, we don't mind if your beeper goes off a lot. If you wanna go on a call, go ahead. It's not like we're gonna stop you."

Weiss replied, "I know, Yang. It's just that since the city's fire dispatch system has separate siren and pager tones but not separate paid and volunteer tones, I get to be woken up every night at least 4 to 5 times for a call that the paid ambulance guys can handle on their own. Besides, I'm useless at medicals until I pass the Intermediate FF course and become an EMT. Of course, if I hear the siren go off, then it's a call that I can actually do something at." She then paused. "You have no clue what those terms mean, do you?"

Ruby smiled and said, "Nope!"

Blake laughed and said, "When was your last call?"

"Yesterday," Weiss replied as she destroyed a character Yang was playing as on a video game.

Yang said, "Aw c'mon, Weiss."

"The fire alarms went off at a book store because some dumbass decided to run a gas motor in the basement. Earlier, I had a minor car accident with a lady with some neck pain."

Then, Weiss felt her pager vibrate again. Ruby said, "C'mon, Weiss, just turn on your pager so we can hear the call!"

Weiss turned a knob, and the pager turned on. Vigilant's siren tone activated, followed by the pager and siren tones of a neighbouring fire company and another pager tone. Yang said, "Sounds big."

"Big? That was only 2 companies and the Assistant District Chief." Weiss turned up the pager's volume more.

A dispatcher then said over the radio, "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 225 for District 2 Assistant, Vigilant 5 and Enterprise Steamer 10 for a Delta Response Traffic Accident near the location of 77 Washburn Road involving 2 cars. The caller states that there appears to be a female unconscious in one of the cars. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 225 for Vigilant 5 and Enterprise Steamer 10 for a Delta Response Traffic Accident near the location of 77 Washburn Road involving 2 cars. Vale City Fire Alarm, signing off at 1252 Hours, Alarm Operator 166."

Weiss said, "Well girls, I'm gonna go to the accident." She then got up and walked out.

Ruby said, "Bye Weiss! Have fun! Or... Just be safe, okay?"

Weiss turned around and said, "Of course I'll be safe, Ruby."

Weiss ran down the stairs from the 3rd floor to the 1st of the apartment building. She then ran outside to the firehouse, which was only a block away. She could hear the station's loud siren roar up and down to alert firefighters. This siren did not go off for all calls, and would only go off for fire calls and accidents, which Vigilant usually got 2-3 of per day.

As she ran in, she saw the ambulance, driven by the paid firefighters, turn a corner and disappear. She ran to a row of coat racks with 2 pairs of boots under each coat. 2 other volunteers that were at the station had already started up the company's rescue, Rescue 201. Weiss took her shoes off and quickly slipped her feet into her boots, which said "Ws. Schnee" on the side. She then grabbed a folded-over section of one boot and pulled it up to her thigh before doing the same with her other boot. She then grabbed her black and yellow coat, which said "VFC 5" and went down to her knees, and hastily put it on. Finally, she grabbed her helmet, a traditional leather helmet with the giant number 5 on the shield.

A volunteer said, "You're quick, Schnee!"

Weiss replied, "Of course I am. Us Schnees are the fastest damn firefighters in the city!" She then laughed as 3 more firefighters ran in to the station. Weiss then opened the back door to Rescue 201 and sat down in a jumpseat. "Is the ambulance there yet?"

"Not yet," said the driver. "Say, your sister wanted you to see her next meeting tomorrow night."

"Winter? Oh boy..."

Then, the 3 firefighters climbed aboard the rescue, filling up the last of the 6 seats plus 3 others on the rear step. The driver then radioed, "Fire Alarm, Rescue 201's responding with a crew of 9." He then said, "Wow, a full crew in 3 minutes. Impressive."

* * *

At 1:00, Rescue 201 arrived on scene, the ambulance beating them by 2 minutes. Weiss got out first and walked over to the first car. It had its windows all smashed, but it appeared to have otherwise minor damage. The driver of that vehicle was already out, as indicated by the open car door, and was already receiving treatment. She then walked over to the second car. It had flipped over once and was severely damaged. "Holy shit," Weiss said to herself. "Whoever was driving this must've been really messed up by this crash."

Then, a firefighter said, "Weiss, come over here. It's urgent."

Weiss turned around and went over to a stretcher with a covered-up body. She said, "Dead on arrival?"

"Yep. But... Uhh... You're not gonna believe who it is."

Weiss said, "Let me have a look." She then peeled back the blanket covering the body's face and screamed.

"Didn't she hang out with your friends a few times over at the firehouse?"

"Pyrrha... Oh my God..." Weiss then covered up her head again. "No way... No fucking way... Nuh uh... That can't be her..."

"I found her wallet in the car. Sure enough, her name is, well, or was, Pyrrha Nikos."

Weiss then said, "I need a minute." She then slowly walked over to the rescue, opened the cab door, stepped inside, shut the door, and cried. She cried for a full 7 minutes to herself, and it was quite loud.

A paid firefighter said to a volunteer, "She took it really hard."

"I know. That's gotta suck, huh? Seeing one of your own friends dead in a crash is awful."

* * *

At 1:23, Weiss returned to Yang and Ruby's apartment, her eyes red from crying. Yang said, "Weiss? What's up?"

Ruby got up and spread her arms out to embrace Weiss, who hugged her back and broke down in tears. "There, there, child. It's okay..."

Weiss then let go and said, "Pyrrha... Pyrrha's gone..."

Blake, Yang, and Ruby all said together, "What?!"

Blake said, "Gone? What the hell do you mean 'gone?'"

"Weiss," Ruby said as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Pyrrha isn't..."

Weiss sternly replied, "Stop denying it, please! Pyrrha's dead!" She then fell to her knees and sobbed.

Blake got up and said, "I'll call Jaune." She seemed to possess no emotion, but as she turned away, a tear fell from her right eye. She then walked to a phone and dialed Jaune's cell phone number.

Jaune was wrapping up a lecture to Signal Academy students when he got the call. He was standing in a hallway talking to a student when he answered the phone. "Jaune Arc, at your service." He seemed bright and cheery.

"Hey Jaune," Blake said. "It's me, Blake."

"Oh, hi Blake. How's it going?"

"You need to come over to Yang and Ruby's apartment now. Something very bad happened."

Jaune's facial expression turned from happiness to seriousness. "Alright. I'll drive over there as soon as I can. Traffic in the Patch-Vale Tunnel is probably light now." He then turned to the student. "I wish I could talk more to you, but I have a personal emergency I need to attend." He then signed an autograph for the student. "I apologise."

The boy replied, "No need, sir. You go attend what you need to. I completely understand."

* * *

**_August 4, 2019_**

Pyrrha's funeral was heartbreaking. A Valeanian Military honour guard composed of 6 huntsmen and huntresses laid out a Vale flag on her coffin before folding it and presenting it to Pyrrha's parents, who in turn gave it to Jaune. Her father said, "Keep it. She adored you."

Jaune could only say a quick 'thank you' before breaking down in tears again. Weiss patted him on the back and hugged him as she herself cried.

Ren had to comfort a crying Nora as a 7th member of the honour guard began playing the song 'Going Home' on bagpipes, a part of military tradition in Vale. Professor Ozpin, who had attended with Glynda, said to himself, "I've heard this song too many God damn times, and now I gotta hear it played for one of my students, again."

Glynda replied, "I know. It's tragic, isn't it, knowing that you're seeing your own students buried, especially so young."

After the funeral, Ren walked over to Weiss. "Hello Ren," Weiss said. "What is it?"

"You went to her crash," Ren said. "How did you?"

"Ren, I'm a firefighter, remember? I volunteer as one. I don't get paid a single penny for what I do."

"I live with Nora. I think your station or whatever it's called is close by."

"Vigilant 5? I think Nora's apartment is near 5's station. Why?"

Ren then took a deep breath. "I want to become a volunteer, or whatever you called it, firefighter."

Weiss paused for a few seconds. "Are you sure you want to, Ren? You know that we see some messed-up stuff, right?"

"I don't care, Weiss. Pyrrha's death changed something in me. It's only a remote chance, but maybe if I was a firefighter, things would have been different."

"Look, Ren. People die. We see a lot of that. You can reduce that amount, but you can't stop every death."

"I know that, Weiss. I know. Just tell me what I need to do."

* * *

_**June 12, 2020**_

Today, Ruby, Yang, and Blake got dressed up. Yang said, "I can't wait for this, guys! I just can't wait! Today's the day we become firefighters!"

Weiss walked in and said, "You still gotta earn that title, Yang. By the way, Ren's at the station now."

The 3 girls then walked out. Blake would go without her trademark bow, revealing her cat ears. Weiss said, "What's with the 'no bow' look?"

"I might as well not keep secrets from the guys at the station," Blake said. "I mean, most already know, but just in case, I'll show them tonight."

After getting sworn in, the girls went downstairs to the apparatus bay to check out their new gear. Ruby said, "Ooooh! This looks so cool! Can we try our gear on, Weiss? Can we?"

Weiss smiled and said, "Go ahead. I ain't gonna stop ya."

Winter, Weiss's older sister, said, "You know how to put the gear on, right?"

Yang said, "Of course. I got a pair of thigh-highs at home."

"These ain't the thigh-highs you're used to," Winter replied.

Eventually, the 3 got their gear on. Blake said, "How do we look?"

Ren said, "You put your gear on correctly, so there's that."

"I almost forgot," Ruby said. "Weiss, what about the fire pole?"

"You might wanna take your gear off if you wanna slide down the pole," she replied. Ruby took off her coat and helmet and ran upstairs with her boots still on. "Be careful!"

A career firefighter watched her approach the pole and said, "You know how to grip that, right?"

"Yeah," the redhead replied. "Are you a paid firefighter?"

"That I am," he replied. "Could you tell by my bunker pants?"

Ruby laughed and held on tight as she slid down the pole to the first floor, with Weiss and Winter standing near the bottom to catch her just in case she slipped, which she didn't.

Yang clapped and said, "Yay! You did it, little sis!"

Blake laughed and said, "Say, Weiss, what's with this 'volunteer staffing' thing you keep mentioning?"

"Oh yeah," Weiss replied. "That's when a few volunteers staff the station for a certain period of time with the paid guys. We all have to do 12+ hours of staffing every month. Most do at least 30."

Blake asked, "Can I do that?"

"Sure," Weiss said. "Just sign up at the captain's office. While you're there, be sure to sign up for Basic Firefighter training. That goes for you too, Ruby and Yang."

Yang then got a phone call. After talking for a minute, she hung up and said, "Guys, let's get this gear off and report to the Regiment HQ. They've got us a hunting mission."

Ruby said, "About damn time! The Grimm have been really boring recently and I'm itching for a good battle."

Blake said, "Easy there, Ruby. The Grimm being mostly inactive should be a good thing."

* * *

_**June 15, 2020**_

The team had finally returned from their hunting mission. The mission involved 2 common Ursai that had been harassing a railroad line outside of the city. It was an easy kill.

The team decided to stop by at the Vigilant firehouse when they got back. Nora said to Ren, "So this is the firehouse... Cool..."

Ren replied, "Indeed it is. When our little guy is born, I'm gonna take him here to see the trucks and stuff." Ren then rubbed Nora's belly, causing her to giggle. The 2 had been married in May, and Nora was 4 months pregnant with their first child. During the mission, she acted as a logistics person, staying behind at an outpost and acting as dispatch over the radio.

"You know," Nora replied. "When our baby's born and when maternity leave ends, I'll be sure to kick a lot of Grimm ass to make up for my inactivity." Ren laughed.

The whole team was there, except for Blake. Winter asked Weiss, "Where's that faunus girl that hangs out with you? What was her name again?"

"It's Blake," Weiss replied. "Something happened during the mission, and Blake and Yang had an argument. They broke up."

"Wait, what? Blake and Yang are gay?"

"No. Yang's pan, and Blake's bi. This was Blake's first relationship with another girl. The break-up was mutual, but it was also mutually hostile."

"Ouch. Hopefully that doesn't affect their performance at calls."

As Winter and Weiss talked, Ruby was comforting Yang, who said, "I fucked up really bad, sis. I haven't felt this bad about a past relationship since that asshole at Signal cheated on me when I was 14. Remember him? The 15-year-old dickbag that I foolishly had sex with and then left me for a 13-year-old?"

Ruby replied, "I remember that well. I was like 11 and you were pretty pissed, Yang. You kept yelling to yourself in your room about how you should've listened to your elders and waited until marriage and whatnot."

"Yeah. Guess who was the hypocrite, though? Me. I ended up going out with 2 more guys and 3 more girls including Blake, and I had sex with 1 of those guys and all 3 of those girls. It's a miracle I didn't catch something. It's also a miracle I wasn't born 25 years ago or whatever when our dad went to Signal and Beacon. Back then, any student caught having sex was expelled. At least now they don't mind as long as you don't get pregnant, get some girl pregnant, catch an STD, or bang a teacher. I heard the nurse at Beacon can now give condoms out for free."

"Wow. Things have changed a lot, huh? I say it's a good thing that Beacon's finally acknowledging the elephant in the room. As for me, I've never had sex."

"Good. Don't end up like me, little sis. I mean, I won't punish you if you do have sex or something. Just be careful who you have it with."

"Say, who was Blake's first?"

"That Adam guy from White Fang. Yeah, that creeped me out considering Blake was 15 and Adam was 20 when it happened. I was her second, though she wishes I was her first."

Weiss said, "Hey guys, why are you 2 talking about sex so much?"

"C'mon, Weiss," Ren said. "It's not like it's an explicit, play-by-play account of what people did. Plus, there's no kids here. I'll have you know I lost mine to Nora at Beacon. I'm not ashamed of it."

"Neither am I," Nora replied. "At least I lost it to the man I love." The 2 then gave each other a quick peck on the lips. "Say, Weiss, who was your first?"

"Ehhh," Weiss said.

"Admit it," Winter said. "It's not gonna change anything about how we think of you."

"Neptune," Weiss said, blushing. "It was Neptune. I lost mine to him just before freshman year ended. We then broke up because he had to go back to Mistral with the rest of Team SSSN. I haven't had it since." She then paused. "There, are you happy now?"

Ruby said, "So? There's no shame involved. People who shame others for their sexual activities are losers!" She closed her eyes and smiled as she said that line.

Yang laughed and said, "That's my Ruby. However, I would've used a stronger word than losers." The entire group then laughed.

Jaune, who was being shown around by a volunteer, then walked over and said, "This place is so cool, Weiss. I mean, I don't think I could handle running into burning buildings, but it looks awesome."

Winter said, "These friends of your's are nice, Weiss. I wish I had friends like you have when I was younger."

Then, they heard a printer in the corner begin to print something out, followed by a voice on the radio saying, "Standby Companies 5, 6, 7, and 10 for a Box Alarm at Box 244."

Weiss said, "We got a run!"

Then, the pager tones for Vigilant 5 were sent out, causing the many pagers in the station to ring out, as well as the mechanical bells to ring for 3 seconds. Then, the siren tones activated, causing a control box in the apparatus bay to click on and turn on the siren. This was followed by the 6 other tones for the other companies: Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence Fire 7, and Enterprise Steamer 10. Finally, the pager tones for District 2's Assistant Chief activated.

Jaune and Nora ran outside to watch the trucks roll out as the dispatcher's voice said, "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 244 for District 2 Assistant, Vigilant 5, Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence 7, and Enterprise Steamer 10 for a Box Alarm at 147 Exeter Street for a reported building fire. The caller reported a fully-engulfed stairwell on the 1st floor and that a man also pulled the street box. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 244 for Vigilant 5, Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence 7, and Enterprise Steamer 10 for a Box Alarm at 147 Exeter Street for a reported building fire. Vale City Fire Alarm signing off at 1844 hours, Alarm Operator 536."

Weiss, Winter, Ruby, Yang, and Ren ran to their gear and quickly put it on as the paid firefighters started up the ambulance. Unlike the volunteers at Vigilant, they wore a more modern bunker gear ensemble, common to that of Europe in real life. They then drove off, speeding away to the fire. As they did, a volunteer ran in to the station from his home.

As the 5 of them climbed aboard Truck 201, they saw a familiar face run in to the station. Ruby said, "Is that Blake?"

"I think it is," Ren replied. Winter then started up the truck.

Outside, a volunteer asked, "Aren't ya gonna get on the Truck?"

Blake replied, "No. I'll wait for the rescue."

The volunteer replied, "Meh. Your loss." He then climbed aboard the truck and said, "That faunus girl's waiting for the rescue."

Eventually, at 6:47, a lieutenant in the company, Alfred Schnee, got in the front seat next to Winter and radioed, "Fire Alarm, Truck 5 is responding with a crew of 10, 6 interior." Winter then sped out of the station and blasted the air horn of the truck. Alfred used a foot pedal to control the truck's mechanical siren.

Ruby said, "That's a loud siren!"

Weiss replied, "I know! That's the power of the Q2B, the greatest siren that ever existed according to many. Now, remember, you, Yang, and Blake still can't go into burning buildings. They'll probably stick you on an exterior hand line or something. I'm gonna probably be first in, since this box is in our first-due."

Then, Winter yelled, "We got a Code 99, boys! The paid guys called it in!"

Everyone except Yang and Rose cheered and clapped. Ruby asked, "What's a Code 99?"

"It means working structure fire," Ren said. "That's when the guys on scene can confirm that there is indeed a fire and it's actively spreading."

Alfred said, "I think they said they got a family trapped on the 4th floor. Looks like we got our work cut out for us."

At 6:50 P.M., Truck 201 arrived. By now, the fire had gone to a 2nd Alarm, increasing the number of companies responding to 10 and bringing in District 2's Chief and Assistant Chief. The crew got out and began their work. Ren, Ruby, and Yang grabbed a supply line from the truck and dragged it to a hydrant. Ren and Winter connected one end to the truck's 2500 gallon-per-minute pump as Ruby and Yang were shown how to 'hit' a hydrant by the company's captain, Arthur Kirkridge, who arrived in Car 5, a personal vehicle given to volunteer captains. They then filled the supply line with water as Ren and Winter got the pump started.

Weiss and Alfred were busy getting their self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) on and had both grabbed an attack line each. Weiss, who was muffled from her mask, then yelled, "Ren, charge the lines! Charge the lines!" The 2 hoses then filled with water.

Al said, "Ready, Weiss?" Weiss nodded. Al then radioed, "Vigilant Interior to command, we're going in. Be sure to send some guys onto the roof, got it?"

The District 2 Chief replied, "10-4. We'll get venting going." He then said to himself, "Damn vollies."

Weiss and Alfred walked in to the apartment building's first floor, which was where the fire started. Weiss said, "Someone told me it started in a stairwell on the first floor."

"I think that's the one," Al said as he pointed to a bright and orange glow coming from a door window. "Looks like all the smoke is coming from the double doors. What could be burning so intensely in a stairwell?"

Weiss replied, "Someone told me they were painting in there, so the paint and the thinner is probably what's causing the fire to be so intense. 10 bucks says some idiot dropped a cigarette and caught some rags on fire." She then felt the door of an apartment next to the stairwell. "Looks like the fire's consumed this apartment here. The door's hot to the touch. The fire's probably in the crawlspaces now."

They then saw 3 more firefighters from Rescue 201 run to a second stairwell carrying rescue tools. Weiss said, "Be careful! The fire originated in the first stairwell!"

Outside, Engine 204 from Enterprise Steamer 10 arrived with 10 firefighters, including 2 on the rear step, as well as Engine 202 from Goodwill Engine 6 with 11 firefighters, including 3 on the rear step, and Ambulance 204 with a crew of 4 volunteers from Enterprise. They immediately got to work, laying down hoses and helping Blake and another Vigilant firefighter raise a 45-foot ground ladder to the 3rd floor.

Ruby and Yang handed out equipment to the firefighters as they watched the growing fire. Ruby said, "I hope whoever's in there makes it out."

"They will," Yang said. "Don't worry."

On the 3rd floor, Winter and another firefighter, who had climbed up the ground ladder, met up with the 3 firefighters from the rescue. She said, "Let's get to work. The trapped family is in Apartment 3-7. Someone said there's 5 people in there. Our job is to get them the hell outta here. Let's go."

A firefighter then said, "I think I passed that apartment on my way to you, Winter. Follow me." The 5 of them then walked to the apartment door. Winter tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Give me the axe."

"Here ya go," a firefighter said.

Winter then rammed the end of the axe against the door and smashed it open. She then yelled, "Is there anyone inside?" By now, the smoke was getting thicker.

A voice shouted, "Help!"

Winter replied, "Where are you?!" She then motioned for the firefighters to split up and search the small, 6-room apartment.

Within minutes, all 5 civilians were rescued. Winter, carrying an unconscious child, said, "Alright. We're gonna go on the ladder back down to the ground." Winter went first, carrying the child delicately as she made her way down. Following her was a civilian and another firefighter.

Eventually, all 5 were brought to the ground. Winter rushed the unconscious child, who had a head injury from running into a table in the panic, to Vigilant's ambulance.

On the first floor, Weiss and Al began spraying down the door to the apartment next to the stairwell in an attempt to attack the fire. By now, flames were beginning to escape from the door and lick the ceiling. Then, Weiss said, "Stand back."

She then walked up to the left of the door and used her hunting weapon, the Myrtenaster, to cut open a section of the door by firing a round of dust while standing from the side. This caused a small but fierce funnel of flame to shoot from the door. Al responded by spraying water into the opening, followed by Weiss when she put her weapon away and grabbed her hose again. "It's a good thing I modified my sword to be retractable."

Al laughed and said, "That was brilliant. We can finally begin tackling this fire." They eventually managed to open the door and knock the fire down inside the apartment, which was empty of human life.

At 8:12 P.M., all Vigilant apparatus returned to the station. Ruby said as she got out of Truck 201, "That was awesome!"

Weiss replied, "Any fire's awesome as long as you saved everyone and nobody died, Ruby. Say, should you, Yang, and Blake go to the captain's office to enroll in Basic Firefighter training?"

"Oh yeah," Yang said. "We forgot! Let's go."

As Yang and Ruby walked in, Blake went up to Weiss and said, "I'm gonna wait for Ruby and... Yang."

"Look, Blake," Weiss said. "We've all been friends since Beacon. I know it hasn't been long since the break-up, but you gotta be able to somehow interact with us when Yang is with us, which is almost always."

Blake's facial expression turned to one of sadness. "I know." She then sighed. "I'll enroll tomorrow when I do the bunk-in shift from 6 at night to 6 in the morning. See ya later."

Weiss then got a phone call from her father, Lieutenant Hermann Schnee. "Hello, Dad."

"Hey Weiss," Hermann replied. "I'm still at the fire scene with the fire marshall. I heard you knocked the fire down pretty hard."

"I sure did," Weiss replied.

"By the way, I need you to pull a shift at the company HQ tomorrow from 9 to 4 at the lobby desk. Mary's out for maternity leave."

"Alright. I can handle that."

"That's my girl. I love you, Weiss."

"Love you too, Dad." She then hung up. "Winter, I'm going home. Bye."

Winter replied, "See ya later, Weiss."

* * *

_**INFORMATION ABOUT VIGILANT FIRE COMPANY 5, THE VALE CITY FIRE-RESCUE DEPARTMENT, AND VIGILANT STATISTICS**_

_**Vigilant is one of many volunteer fire companies that provides fire, rescue, and EMS protection for the 3 million residents of the City of Vale. It was founded in 1818 and was preceded by 4 other companies, the oldest of which, Protection Fire and Engine Company 1, was founded in 1732. The most recently formed company in the city was founded in 1978. These companies work alongside paid firefighters who help staff units at these companies either 24/7 or only during the day. The paid firefighters work 12-hour shifts with 36 hours off between shifts.**_

_**Each volunteer company has 2 lieutenants and 1 captain that are elected by the volunteers. Additionally, daytime staffed units have 1 lieutenant and 1 captain, while 24/7 staffed units have 3 lieutenants and 1 captain. The first paid firefighters were hired by the city at the request of several very busy companies in 1870. Additionally, there are several all-paid fire stations protecting the seaport and the 2 airports of the city, as well as several military and industrial facilities as part of contracts to the military of Vale and numerous industrial corporations.**_

_**The first Schnee to join the fire company was a man named Adolf Schnee, who joined in 1866, 3 years after his family moved to Vale from Atlas. At the time, he also was interested in running a dust-mining business. He bought a failing mine in 1867 and, to everyone's surprise, found that the original diggers of the mine just missed a huge deposit of it below them. By 1890, the Schnee Dust Company had managed to become one of the "Big 5" in the dust industry. Now, as of 2020, Schnee Dust has bought 3 of those original "Big 5" corporations, and the last merged with another company to form Schnee's biggest competitor, the Ferdinand-Tyvix Corporation, or the F-TC.**_

_**Vigilant's fleet of apparatus consists of:**_

_**Truck 201-2018 Avex Quantum III 2500 GPM/750-Gallon Water Tank/135' Rear-Mount Aerial Ladder (10-man cab)**_

_**Rescue 201-2013 Avex Arrow XT Rescue-Pumper 1250 GPM/375-Gallon Water Tank (6-man cab)**_

_**Ambulance 201-2016 Fark Motors M2/Avex Transporter Heavy-Duty 4-Door Ambulance (6-man cab)**_

_**In 2019, Vigilant Fire Company 5 responded to 4,856 EMS calls and 1,173 Fire-Rescue calls. This does not take into account the fact that most medical calls are solely attended to by the paid firefighter-paramedics that staff Ambulance 201, or that Vigilant provides ambulance services for Goodwill Engine Company 6 and half of Excellence Fire Company 7, both of which provide first responder services.**_

_**Vigilant's fire siren, a Royal Signal STH-10 built in 1962 to replace a Royal Signal Model 2 siren from 1935 that broke in 1961, was activated 1,173 times in 2019, all for Fire-Rescue calls. It elicited 0 complaints from residents.**_

_**Author's Notes:**_

_**1\. Avex Manufacturing=Pierce Manufacturing.**_

_**2\. Royal Signal=Federal Signal/Fedelcode.**_

_**This story will be updated in parts, ranging from 4,000 to possibly 10,000 words. Part 2 will be up by late February/early March, and will be much darker.**_


	2. Season 1: Part 2

_**June 20, 2020**_

Ruby, Yang, and Blake were getting ready to take their first Basic Firefighter/Certified First Responder class at the VCFD Training Academy. The time was 6:00 P.M. Ruby, who was looking at all of the over 50 volunteers who had signed up for the course, said, "Wow, a lot of these guys look younger than us."

"They probably are," Blake said. "You can take this course when you're 14. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the class is under 20."

"I wonder if we can use our hunting weapons in training," Yang said. "I know Weiss uses her whatever-it's-called sword at fires."

"Probably not," Blake replied. "Remember, most of the people here aren't huntsmen or huntresses."

"Speaking of Weiss," said Ruby. "I wonder what she's doing now."

* * *

_**13 years ago, 2007**_

"Damn those faunus," Hermann yelled out. "They murdered the entire family of one of my board members! Do you know what they did?! They raped and murdered his wife, his 5-year-old daughter, his 12-year-old son, and then they beat him to death!"

"Honey," Hermann's wife said. "Not in front of the children, please. I don't want them hearing about this."

Weiss, then 9 years old, asked Hermann, "Daddy, what's rape?"

"See?! See what your anger is gonna lead to?!"

"I can't control what those bastards do! I have the right to be angry!"

"I know, Hermann, but you don't have the right to expose our children to such horrid things!"

Weiss then ran away into Winter's room, crying. Winter, then 15 years old, said, "Tough, huh?"

Hermann and his wife argued even more intensely now that Weiss had begun crying. Weiss said, "Why won't mommy and daddy just stop, Winter? Why won't they just stop yelling at each other?"

* * *

Weiss, back in 2020, opened up a bottle of vodka. "I'm gonna be a fucking slave to alcohol if this bullshit keeps happening. Screw these damn flashbacks and nightmares." She then drank 2 gulps of the stuff before stopping, causing some of the alcohol to spill from the bottle. "I've been having the same damn nightmares and flashbacks for weeks on end! It feels like I'm suddenly younger and back in the bad old days. It sucks…"

She then heard a voice behind her. "Hey Weiss, how's it going?"

Weiss turned around and said, "Who the hell are you?" She then jumped when she saw who it was and what they looked like.

The person standing in front of her was Pyrrha, but she had a huge laceration of her forehead and her teeth were stained with dried blood. She also had a bone sticking out of her right arm's elbow. "I'm Pyrrha. Don't mind the compound fracture, that's only for looks in the afterlife."

"Jesus fucking Christ," Weiss said as she took a deep breath. "Could you at least try to not look so disturbingly gross?"

Pyrrha gave her the finger and said, "Bite me."

"Anyway, why are you here, Pyrrha?"

"I just wanted to check on things, that's all. By the way, has Jaune been... 'seeing' anyone recently?"

Weiss shrugged. "No clue. I don't know his personal life."

By the time Weiss finished her sentence, Pyrrha was gone.

Weiss then took another sip of Vodka and said, "Meh. Who cares?"

* * *

At 10:26, Blake, Yang, and Ruby all came home. They were tired out from their first time going into a burning building in training. Ruby said, "That was amazing, though. I can't believe Blake almost trampled another trainee in the dark. That was funny." They all then laughed.

Blake replied, "To be fair, it was pitch black."

Yang said, "It's supposed to be, silly! Also, did either of you notice some of the hot trainees?"

Ruby laughed. "Yang, don't use training as a way to pick up guys." She then paused and uneasily said, "Or girls..."

"I gotta get back to my place," Blake said before leaving abruptly.

"Oh boy," Yang said to Ruby. "But did you see them? I got a guy's number over there. Sadly, I couldn't find a single girl who was into other girls there."

"You're horrible," Ruby jokingly said. "Maybe you forgot a few girls." She then facepalmed. "Damn it, I shouldn't have given you that idea."

Then, Yang's phone rang. "Wonder who that is?" She then answered the phone. "Hello? Oh, it's you! Wow! How did training for you go? Good. Yeah, I know. What company are you from again? Really? That's right next door to mine. Uhh... Sure, I could go over now and have a few drinks, I guess. Okay, I'll see you later. Bye."

Ruby said, "I assume that was him?"

"Indeed. I'll be back around 11 or midnight. If otherwise, I will text you." Yang then opened her and Ruby's apartment door. "First, I gotta take a shower and get that smoke smell off of me."

Ruby replied, "Have fun, you crazy bastard."

* * *

_**June 21, 2020**_

Yang woke up next to the same man that had called her. She yawned and stretched her arms out, getting up and soon realising that she was completely naked and had a hangover. "Agh... I can only imagine what last night was like..."

She walked into the bathroom of the apartment and noticed a used condom in the trashbin. "At least he did that." As she went to the bathroom and washed her hands, she heard him get up. She walked out and said, "Hey there, darling. Got any idea what or who we did last night?"

The man, named George, said, "Woah! You're naked!" He was 19 years old and was normally awkward with girls. He was from Goodwill Engine 6.

"Look who's talking," Yang said. "And your morning wood's showing. Jesus Christ, you must've had me screaming your name last night with that thing." Yang then walked past him and went back into the bedroom to put some clothes on. "Does your head hurt? Because mine hurts like hell."

"Same," George replied. "At least we weren't-"

Then, his pager went off, followed by the siren tones for Goodwill.

"Interrupted by a call..."

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 274 for Goodwill Engine 6 and Enterprise Steamer 10 for an odor of gas at 1845 Broad Street. Caller reported..."

Yang said, "Broad Street, huh? You'd think I'd live on that street, right?" Yang then laughed. "Huh? Huh? Get it?"

George covered his mouth and slowly broke down in laughter at the pun Yang dropped.

"Shouldn't you be going to that call?"

George regained his composure and said, "I usually turn off my pager completely during the night and only go to box alarms, which I can tell apart from other siren calls since I'll hear 4 sirens roar up at once, unless I'm doing a bunk-in at my company's quarters. During the day, I will go to most fire-rescue calls and some EMS runs, since we have no paid guys with us and only bunk-ins, unless I'm hungover or sick."

"How many does Goodwill do a year?"

"In 2019 Goodwill did about... Uhh... 1500 EMS and 600 fire-rescue. Remember, we cover a small first-due with only a single 8-man engine and 25 volunteers."

Yang then walked out, dressed in a bra and underwear she found in his closet. "By the way, what are these doing here?"

"Uhhh..." George was now blushing. "My mom gave them to me to throw out. That's old underwear, like 3 years old."

"Oh," Yang replied. "Anyways, how old did you say you were again?"

"19. Why?"

"Were you a virgin before last night?"

George sighed. "Yes, I was."

"Awwww, that's so cute." She then wrapped her arms around George. "You know, I'm 'on the market.' Wanna do something later, like see a movie?"

George blushed even harder. "Y-... Yes..."

"Good," Yang replied. "I'll go take a shower. If you want to, you can join me..."

George then stood up as Yang held his hand and guided him to the bathroom. The 2 then closed the door behind them as Yang started the shower up.

* * *

Back at Yang and Ruby's apartment, Weiss said, "Where the hell's Yang?"

Ruby said, "She went over to some guy's house. I assume she's hungover."

Then, their pagers went off. "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 2114 for Vigilant Fire 5, Excellence Fire 7, Valeanian Legion Ambulance 12, and Valiant Hook and Ladder 13 for a Box Alarm at 56 Interview Street with fire alarms going off. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 2114 for Vigilant Fire 5, Excellence Fire 7, Valeanian Legion Ambulance 12, and Valiant Hook and Ladder 13 for a Box Alarm at 56 Interview Street with fire alarms going off. Time is 1005 hours, Alarm Operator 122."

"Let's roll, Weiss," Ruby said. The 2 then got up and ran to the stairwell. They saw Blake follow them as they then ran outside to the road.

Weiss said, "The ambulance just started rolling out!" The 3 then ran like hell to the fire station. When they got there, they took their shoes off and slipped their high boots on. They then grabbed their coats, pulled their boots up, and ran to Truck 201. Another firefighter had already started up the truck. As they got buckled in, 2 more firefighters hopped aboard.

The engineer then radioed, "Fire Alarm, Truck 201's responding with a crew of 10, 7 interior."

* * *

Back at George's apartment, Yang said after the "shower" they 2 had taken, "You know, I've been thinking..."

"About what, Yang?" George began to get worried. After all, he was just 19 and inexperienced, and she was a stunning 22-year-old woman with loads more experience than he could ever dream of having. "Am I not doing well?"

"What? No! You're great in 'that' regard, George." Yang then sighed. "You see, I broke up with my girlfriend about a week ago, and I guess I built up a lot of tension. That explains why I was so quick to bang you. That and the alcohol. Listen, I think you're a sweet kid, George."

"Thank you, Yang." He then smiled. "I'm usually shy, but alcohol can open me up." He then laughed.

Yang also laughed. "It opens me up too. I should probably explain why I'm so open to you now. Well..."

George said as Yang frowned, "Are you okay?"

"I'm cool. It's just... My breakup was rough... We broke up about a week ago... I was pretty sad, and I still am. I guess I just need to stay high to keep her out of my mind. And since I don't do drugs, sex is the next best option."

George replied, "I'm sorry you had to go through that shit, Yang. Let's make a deal then, shall we?"

"A deal?" Yang looked intrigued.

"You're a 22-year-old girl who craves sex and has... how many years of experience in sex and romance?"

"8 years... Yeah..."

"Wow... And I'm a 19-year-old boy who has no clue what he's doing in regards to dating, relationships, or sex, but is full of energy and eagerness. It should be obvious by now where this will lead to."

Yang was initially confused, but then she said, "Aha! I get it! You want a friends-with-benefits relationship?"

"You could call it that, Yang. We'll go date as friends and continue to bang each other, and if we end up falling for each other, so be it. I will not be angry if you choose to leave this relationship as long as you won't be angry if I do. You will show me how to act in a relationship, as well as more 'dirty' things, and in exchange, I will fulfill your lust."

"Agreed." Yang and George then shook hands. "I gotta go back to my place. I'll see you later, darling." She then gave him a kiss on the cheek.

George blushed and said, "Was that part 1 of my teaching?"

"It was," Yang replied as she secretly blushed. "Okay, what the hell did just I agree to again?"

* * *

When Yang got back to her apartment at 10:37, Ruby, Blake, and Weiss had just came home from the alarm activation. Weiss said, "Where the hell were you?"

"Just at a friend's place," Yang replied. "Nothing major. By the way, I gotta go with that friend to a movie at 7."

Ruby said, "Oh boy! What movie?"

"Robbers of the Starlight," Yang said. "It's a crime film."

Blake said, "I heard good things about it, though since the White Fang is the enemy in the real-life story and the film, the White Fang hates it. Then again, who gives a shit what they think?" The group then laughed altogether, even though Weiss was kind of uneasy.

Ruby said, "You know, the White Fang haven't been too active recently. Their last bombing was in 2017, and they haven't killed anyone since last year."

"Hopefully it stays that way," Weiss said. "I don't want a huge attack to occur."

Yang said, "Moving on, how's-?" Yang was then interrupted by Weiss's phone. "Ehh... Weiss?"

Weiss then answered the phone. "Hello? Jaune? Oh hey there! Uhhh... Sure. I'll be there tomorrow. Okay then. I'll meet ya there. Bye-bye." She then hung up. "I'm going out to eat with Jaune tomorrow night."

Ruby said, "Is it a date?"

Weiss blushed and said, "No, it's not!"

Blake then said, "By the way, I'm looking into getting a new job at the Vale City Fire Alarm Office. They're paying like 12.50 an hour for new dispatchers. I'd work in one of 3 shifts on weekdays and then we'd bid for weekend shifts."

"Fire Alarm?" Weiss looked annoyed. "Those guys can be really cryptic when it comes to dispatching us. When they give us the wrong address, it can really piss off the volunteers."

Blake replied, "I could see why."

Later that day, as the group was watching a city council meeting, a councilman named Michael Vertman said, "In my honest opinion, this city does not need so many firefighters. We can last with 3-man Engines, 4-man Trucks and Rescues, and unstaffed special units. We have volunteers in our city, and they can handle a pretty high call load."

"Bullshit," Weiss said. "I'm a volunteer, and I'm calling bullshit on you, Vertman!"

Ruby said, "Who are those guys getting up and leaving?"

"The Vale City Permanent Fireman's Association," Weiss replied. "They're the union that represents current and past paid firefighters in the city. Us volunteers have the Vale City Volunteer Firemen's Association. They're indifferent to the proposed cuts, officially at least. They don't wanna start shit between them and the paid guys."

Yang said, "Should me, Ruby, and Blake register for that volunteer union?"

"You already did," Weiss replied. "The application included info on the union, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Blake said. "I remember that. When does that union meet?"

"We meet once every 2 months because we're so huge," Weiss replied. "The Vigilants meet every week on Wednesdays at 9 AM and 6:30 PM.

Then, the pagers went off. "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 216 for Vigilant Fire 5 for a Bravo-Response traffic accident at 177 Careleon Road involving a 27-year-old female with neck and back pain. PD is en route. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 216 for Vigilant Fire 5 for a Bravo-Response traffic accident at 177 Careleon Road. Time is 1723 hours, Alarm Operator 370."

Weiss said, "Yang, go on it. You missed the last call because of your little date."

Ruby said, "I'm going to it."

Yang said, "Alright, alright. Ruby, let's go."

At 5:29, Rescue 201 arrived with a crew of 6. By then, the paid firefighters, plus 2 volunteers who had been staffing the station with the paid guys, on Ambulance 201 had stabilised the patient. It was the rest of the volunteers' job to block the road and help a towing company tow the wrecked car away.

At the scene, Ruby and Yang were put to cleaning work, mopping up the fluids of the car, the victim's blood, and the broken glass. Yang said, "Be careful with the blood. There's no telling what kind of shit's in it."

Ruby, wearing gloves, said, "I know, I know. That's why I'm wearing gloves." She then began mopping up the blood with a disposable sponge. "This is soooo tedious!"

Yang, meanwhile, was using a broom to sweep the broken glass on the ground into a pile. She then saw a man on a motorcycle drive past the accident at an extremely high speed. "Watch it!" Then, they all heard a loud crash, followed by the motorcyclist flying up into the air. Yang said, "Holy shit!"

Several of the firefighters ran over and saw that the bike had hit the back of a car, ejecting the motorcyclist. A paid firefighter radioed for the accident scene to be upgraded to a Delta, which would bring in Enterprise Steamer 10 and a re-tone for Vigilant Fire 5.

Ruby said, "Talk about coincidences, huh?"

Yang replied, "Yeah. That guy on the bike looks hurt pretty bad. Looks like today wasn't his lucky day."

Ruby then went away to throw the bloodied sponge into a biohazard bag. She then climbed onto the ambulance, where a paid firefighter was treating the original patient, and asked, "Do you know where I can wash my hands in here?"

"Right in that sink," the paid firefighter said as she pointed to a compartment on the ambulance. "There's soap in there too."

The original patient said, "At least I'm not that guy on the bike." The 3 of them then all laughed before the driver's neck began to hurt again.

* * *

_**June 25, 2020**_

Ruby, Yang, and Weiss all had to go to work, so Blake and Ren were the only ones in the group to go to the morning meeting, which 31 volunteers attended. There, the captain of the company went over some new equipment, including Rapid Intervention Team gear and rope rescue gear. An RIT team was a special group of firefighters, usually from multiple companies and almost always volunteer, designated by the incident commander to standby and wait at a fire for another firefighter to get injured or trapped. They would then quickly but safely extricate the firefighter and lead him to safety. Only those who were interior firefighters could attend RIT school, a 3-month course.

After the meeting, Blake was talking to Ren. She said, "Yang's seeing that George guy from Goodwill Engine 6. He's like 3 years younger than her, and he's completely new to sex and dating in general."

"Maybe that's what Yang wants," Ren replied. "Maybe it symbolises a fresh start for her, and maybe she wants a fresh partner who's new. Plus, as they say, guy virgins are very eager and full of energy, but girl virgins are cautious and more worried about the consequences."

Blake replied, "That is so stereotypical... And true..." She then sighed. "Anyways, how's Nora?"

"The pregnancy's going well. She's 4 months in. By November, our child will be born. We still haven't decided the names yet. Say, do you want a kid, Blake?"

"Only if I end up marrying a guy," Blake replied. "If it's a girl, I'll let her do that, or we'd adopt."

"Speaking of guys," said a voice behind them. "Guess who's back."

Blake turned around and gasped, "Sun?"

"That's right," Sun said. "Me and the SSSN gang are back. We heard the gang would be here."

Ren said with surprise, "Oh my God. It's been so long since we've seen you guys. How's Mistral?"

Neptune replied, "Fun. The usual. Where's Weiss, Ruby, and Yang?"

"Working," Blake replied. "I have no job yet, and Ren works later in the day. We just got done finishing a fire company meeting."

Sun said, "Fire department? You guys are firefighters?"

Ren replied, "Volunteers. We get paid zip for waking up in the middle of the night to go to your call."

"Wow," Neptune replied. "And you guys want to not get paid?"

"Yeah," Blake said. "We all have other day jobs and stuff. We also have some firefighters who augment our capabilities who are paid and stay at the station in working shifts. But most of the firefighters in Vale are volunteers."

"Mistral never had that," Sun said. "At least not in the cities. Maybe in smaller villages, but not in cities. I guess that explains the air raid sirens I keep on hearing."

"Oh yeah," Blake said. "Those sirens. They go off when a fire or car accident comes in, but they won't go off for ambulance calls. Each volunteer company has to have one. Our siren goes off over 1,000 times per year. I know that a company in downtown has a siren that goes off 6 or 7 times a day. Then there's companies in the agricultural and rural areas of the city that do barely over 500 calls per year, with only about 100 siren activations."

Sun said, "That would make me go crazy!" They all then laughed and continued their conversation.

At 9:15 PM, later that night, Weiss and Jaune returned to Weiss's apartment. Jaune said, "That was fun! The food was great, the nightlife is energetic, and you're a good friend Weiss."

"Awww," Weiss said. "Thanks, man. You know, Team SSSN's back."

"Really? All of them?"

"Yes. Neptune, Sun, Scarlet, and Sage." Weiss had hesitated when she said Neptune's name.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, it's just... Neptune coming back is awkward... You know how we had sex the night before he left, right?"

Jaune was surprised. "You did? I mean, I'm not surprised you've done that before, but with him?"

"Yep. It was kinda stupid. I mean, I didn't like-like him by then, but there was still tension. Say, Jaune, I don't mean to make you sad, but, have you ever liked anyone other than Pyrrha?"

Weiss then looked up and saw Pyrrha's still-mutilated ghost give her a disapproving look. Jaune said, "Uhhh... Yes... It was unrequited, though..."

"I'm sorry if I don't seem like I'm paying attention, Jaune. It's just... Okay, go ahead."

"Well... I don't wanna say her name. It's someone you know, and I don't wanna make things... awkward..."

"I don't give a damn. Spill it."

Pyrrha got angry at Weiss and mouthed to her, "Tell him to fucking stop."

Jaune then said, "Well... It... It was... You."

Pyrrha's jaw then dropped. Weiss said, "Oh... Me? Wait..."

Jaune then panicked. "I... I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry."

"No, no, no. It's..." Weiss then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I knew that you liked me back in Beacon, but I thought it was just because of my family's wealth."

"Hell no," Jaune replied. "I didn't even know who the Schnees were or how powerful they were back then."

Weiss then sighed and got angry at herself, "Damn it! I wish I had known that! I'm so sorry I made you out to be that way, Jaune. It's just that a lot of guys only see me for my wealth."

Jaune then said, "You know, I guess I have been... Revisiting those feelings ever since Pyrrha died..."

Weiss then hugged him and said, "Jaune, you're a nice man, and... I guess we can give this a try..." She then let go of him. "Okay... Let's get some ground rules set up here. We should not tell anyone about this unless we both agree to it. We will not have sex with each other until this trial period ends. We will remain just friends in public."

Jaune said, "Alright then. Let's hope this works out. I gotta go home now, Weiss. See ya later." He then got up to leave, but he then turned around and kissed Weiss. Weiss initially was surprised, but soon went with it.

Weiss said, "Goodbye, Jaune." She then heard her pager squawk out a call for a carbon monoxide alarm going off. She then got up and ran past Jaune to the stairs.

Jaune thought in her head, "There she goes..."

VIGILANT FIRE COMPANY OFFICERS AS OF 2020:

Captain: Arthur Kirkridge III

1st Lieutenant: Hermann Schnee

2nd Lieutenant: Alfred Schnee


	3. Season 1: Part 3

_June 27, 2020_

Ruby and Yang decided to do bunk-in duty at the station from 6 to 12. They woke up early and at 5:45 they headed down to the station. As they walked to the station, Ruby, still very tired from waking up at 5:20, said as she yawned, "I'm gonna plop right back down in bed when we get there."

"Same, Yang replied. "I'm surprised Blake didn't wanna come with us." She then sighed. "Oh... Now I think I know..."

"What's wrong, Yang? Still sore over the breakup with her?"

"Yep. Hey Ruby, can you keep a secret?" They both then stopped.

"What secret?"

Yang then went up to Ruby's ear and quietly said, "I have a new friend, and we're currently in a friends-with-benefits situation. He's a pretty cool guy."

"That's your secret? Who cares?" Ruby looked confused. "I don't."

"Blake would." Yang looked worried. "She may think I'm an asshole for having sex with someone so soon after the relationship, especially since it's a guy. You need to tell no one about my friend, alright?"

"Of course I wouldn't. You're my big sister, Yang. I would never screw you over, much less like that. Now let's go. We have a firehouse to go to."

When they got there, they filled out a check-in sheet and quietly went upstairs to 2 available beds. There were 12 beds in total for bunk-in firefighters, and 1 was already taken by another volunteer. Yang quietly got under the covers and said, "Good night, Ruby."

Ruby replied, "Good morning, Yang." The 2 then fell asleep soon afterwards around 6.

Then, at 6:23, they were interrupted by the bells in the station and the pager tones for the company. Yang said, "Aw shit! I was having a really good dream!"

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 229 for Vigilant Fire 5 for an Alpha Response to 21 Washburn Road for a 57-year-old male complaining of vomiting. He has also reported blood in his vomit. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 229 for Vigilant Fire 5 for an Alpha Response to 21 Washburn Road for a 57-year-old male complaining of vomiting. Time is 0623 hours, Alarm Operator 166."

The 2 girls and the third volunteer got up and ran to the fire pole in the bunk-in room. They then slid down to the ladder truck bay, also nicknamed the new bay, and ran to a door that led to the ambulance and rescue bay, also nicknamed the old bay. A paid firefighter said, "Hop on in! Hop on in!"

Ruby and Yang got in the 4-door front cab while the third volunteer opened the back doors and got seated in the back. A paid lieutenant then radioed, "Fire Alarm, Ambulance 201's responding with a crew of 5, 2 paramedics."

Ruby said, "Wait, do we go lights and sirens for Alphas, or lights only?"

The driver replied, "Lights only and non-emergency."

"Aw man," Ruby said.

Yang replied, "Hey, you'll get a lights and sirens call soon, sis."

* * *

At 10:00, Blake sat down in an office in the Vale City Fire Alarm Office for a job interview. The large 4-storey building was built in 1872 when the Garnett* Box Alarm System was installed in the city. All 911 calls for fire and medical emergencies would be rerouted from the police department's 911 call centre to this building. It also housed the administrative headquarters of the fire department.

"Welcome to the Fire Department Headquarters," the head of the Fire Alarm Division, Algar Hess, said. "I am glad that you are interested in a job in the Fire Alarm Office. Now, before I let you explore our space, let's go over a few things."

"I have my physical and my resume right here," Blake said. She then handed Algar her papers.

"Thank you," he replied. "Now, Miss Belladonna, your report mentions you were once a member of the White Fang, but your testimony against them in court resulted in your record getting expunged, correct?"

"Yes, that is true. Mr. Hess, I really, really regret the fact I didn't leave when they turned violent. They are the reason I don't have a tail, after all."

"Really? What happened to your tail?"

* * *

_February 15, 2014_

"Belladonna," a voice rang out in the darkness. "You have failed the group known as the White Fang!"

Blake, then just 15 years old, woke up, beaten and bloodied, in an interrogation room. "Where the fuck am I?!"

"You hesitated to shoot the target because his family was around," the voice said again. "I told you to kill him and the family!"

"No fucking way! I don't kill kids! His kids and wife had jackshit to do with his role at Schnee Dust!"

"You let him get away, you bastard! You were given specific instructions to kill them! And for that, we will make you pay." A man then stood before her with a knife.

"Oh shit," Blake said. "No way! You're not cutting off my fucking tail!" She then kicked the man with the knife down. Another then grabbed her arms. The man with the knife then grabbed her legs and handed the knife to a woman. "Let me go, God damn it!"

The woman then handcuffed and legcuffed Blake an sat her down on a chair. She then said, "Cutting!" She swung the knife, a long butcher knife, down onto Blake's tail.

The pain was immediately felt, and Blake screamed as the woman sawed into the tail, finally cutting it off. She then handed the knife to another man who threw it in a trashbin. Blake screamed and cried further. A man then said, "Shut the hell up, bitch!" He then kicked Blake in the ribs, breaking several and causing her to fall unconscious.

* * *

In the present, Blake said, "And thus, it was a very traumatic experience. I left after I got out of the hospital and did one last non-fatal mission to steal dust from a train. Later, I testified against my former commanders in court in regards to the things they ordered me to do. Most of them got hanged in the Vale Central Prison."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Algar said. "I really am. I've heard some messed-up stories, but that takes the cake. Don't you have any sort of protection from them?"

"My friends and I are all huntresses. We can take on whoever tries to kill me."

"I see. Anyways, do you have prior experience working with radios?"

"I talk on them. I don't really know how they work."

"That's okay. Let's go to the radio room and show you how we operate. First, here's a list of all frequencies we operate on." He then handed Blake a piece of paper with all of the radio frequencies used by the fire department. (A/N: See the list and radio info below.) "Follow me."

The 2 then walked into the radio room. It was a large room full of 7 telegraph receivers, 9 radio stations, and 4 telephone receiving stations. It also had 3 TVs and a map of all alarm boxes in the city. Each box was represented by a light that would glow red when that box was pulled or a dispatcher transmitted the box for a call. Blake said, "This place looks so cool!"

"It is. Over here is the paging station. Here, we have the encoder for the pager tones here and the encoder for the siren tones here. We also have a teleprinting system here." A dispatcher dialed in the numbers for the tones of several companies on both encoders.

"I assume that dispatcher is gonna dispatch someone."

"That they are. According to the CAD screen, it's an alarm activation. Nothing major. We get a lotta those."

* * *

At 12:08, Ruby and Yang returned home. Weiss said, "How was live-in?"

"Good," Ruby said. "We had 4 medical calls and 1 fire call." She then yawned. "God, I'm tired."

"Remember. You, Yang, and Blake all have Basic Firefighter training tonight."

Yang replied, "We know. We know. Where's Blake?"

"She's over at Fire Alarm. She's getting interviewed for a job there. Anyways, I gotta go to the Schnee Dust HQ for a meeting. I'll be back by 2."

"See ya later," replied Ruby. She then turned to Yang as Weiss walked out. "Hey Yang, have you noticed something off about Weiss?"

"What?"

"She seems to be... On edge. I once saw her drink some vodka."

"Yeah, so? You drink, I drink, Blake drinks, who cares?"

"Yeah, but she drank a lot. She also seems not as enthusiastic about doing Schnee company business anymore."

"She never really was. She had issues with her family. She's gonna take over the company when her father Hermann croaks, so she's obviously worried about how she'll handle herself as CEO when that day comes in 30-something years."

"I know, but this seems different. I sensed a feeling of resentment within her about her family, one I had never seen before. I wonder what drove that."

Yang chuckled. "Ruby, you worry too much about Weiss." She then laughed again. "Do you have something to tell me?"

"Uhhh... No?" Ruby looked confused.

Yang then made a scissoring motion with her fingers and said, "Are you sure?"

Ruby was still confused, saying, "Yang, what are you doing?"

"Ruby, do you think you're straight?"

"Yeeeaaaaah? Why?"

"I'm having a **hard **time believing that." Yang then rested on Ruby's shoulder. "Over-analyzing a person's actions is a surefire sign that you like someone as more than just a friend, Ruby."

Ruby then finally caught on to what Yang was hinting at, "Oh my God, Yang! Were you implying that I'm in lesbians with Weiss?!"

"Maybe," Yang replied. "Lesbians might not be the term I'd use. I've seen you read Blake's erotic books before, and you were blushing the whole time you did. It's obvious you still like guys sexually. But maybe you like girls too."

"No I don't!" Ruby blushed intensely. "Not that there's anything wrong with that..."

Blake then suddenly paid a visit. "Uhhh... What's going on?"

Ruby said, "Nothing!"

Yang said, "Ruby's got a crush on Weiss. I know it."

"Okay," Blake replied slowly. "I'm gonna go in my apartment and pretend this never happened." She then walked out, confused by what was going on.

Ruby then said to Yang, "Okay... Fine... Yang, I like girls... And guys... Are you happy now?"

Yang then said, "Ruby, let me just say that 'I knew it!' Second, on a serious note, I can help you as a guide so you don't screw this up." Yang's tone of voice then became very serious. "Listen to me, sis. There are people out there who will give you shit for this, and it's not just your run-of-the-mill homophobes. I'm talking about assholes in the LGBT+ community who will call you a breeder, a traitor, untrustworthy, or a slut because you either swing both ways or you're a revolving door like me. That is the most hurtful part, when your own community turns on you and acts just like those homophobes and transphobes who are straight and cis."

Ruby asked, "Did you ever go through that?"

Yang then sighed. "Yes, I did. A boyfriend walked out on me because of my sexuality, and I have been called some pretty bad names at bars and events for being who I am. Luckily, I had friends, lovers, and family members willing to back me up. Ruby, if you ever get harassed for being bisexual, don't take any shit from those guys, and tell me about it. I will take care of it." Yang then sighed. "Now, about Weiss. Honestly, I have no clue who she wants to have in her pants. I'd ask her."

Ruby replied, "Good idea. I mean, we're like best friends. Best friends talk about a lotta personal stuff about each other."

Yang then said, "And remember, Ruby, be prepared for both acceptance and disappointment. I once found out a girl I liked wasn't into other girls and it hurt. You remember that, right?"

"Wasn't that when we were in Beacon?"

"It was. If Weiss is straight, or if she likes other girls but doesn't hold feelings for you, you can be sad, but remember that you can't change who they are just like how we can't change who we are. You gotta accept that and move on somehow." Yang then hugged Ruby. "Promise me that regardless of whatever happens, you'll remain best friends with Weiss. After all, your future BF, GF, husband, or wife is your best friend with benefits." They both then laughed. "You can promise that, right?"

"I damn will," Ruby replied. "I damn will, and she will be, so help us whatever deity is out there, if at all." Then, their pagers rang. Once the siren tone went off, the 2 girls quickly ran out of their apartment.

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 2126 for Vigilant Fire Company 5 and the District 2 Chief for a Code 99 at 175 Bristol Avenue with Valeanian Legion Ambulance 12, Enterprise Steamer 10, Valiant Hook and Ladder 13, and Excellence 7. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 2126 for Vigilant Fire Company 5 and the District 2 Chief for a Code 99 at 175 Bristol Avenue with Valeanian Legion Ambulance 12, Enterprise Steamer 10, Valiant Hook and Ladder 13, and Excellence 7. Time is 1221 hours, Alarm Operator 341."

Yang and Ruby were soon joined by Blake as they ran to the first floor of the apartment building and darted out of the entrance of the building. They managed to run to the station in 2 minutes. By then, the ambulance had already left with the paid firefighters plus any bunk-in volunteers at the station.

There, the 3 girls quickly put their boots on, pulled them up, and grabbed their coats. As they got into the cab of Truck 201, they zipped up their coats and waited as more and more firefighters either ran or drove to the station. A volunteer said, "Where was that fire again?"

Blake opened the door and yelled, "175 Bristol Avenue!" 3 firefighters then climbed aboard the truck.

At 12:25, a firefighter radioed, "Truck 201's responding with a crew of 10, 5 interior." As they pulled out, they saw Car 5, driven by the company's captain, speed past them with lights and sirens.

At 12:37, Truck 201 arrived. By then, a second alarm had been transmitted, bringing in 5 more companies. The fire was on the 8th floor of a 10-storey building and was rapidly spreading. Blake said, "I know this place!"

Yang replied, "You do?" The 3 firefighters then got out of the truck and looked up at the building.

"Yeah. The offices of the National Association for the Advancement of Faunus is up there. The White Fang calls them traitors and cowards for practising nonviolent protest and using legal means to gain more rights for us." Blake then sighed. "I wouldn't be surprised if this is an arson."

Ruby then said, "Hey guys, what fireground channel are we on for this?"

Arthur Kirkridge, who was walking over to organise the company's firefighters, said, "Channel 1. I have no clue if the District Chief wants to activate the High-Rise Ops channel yet. If he does, he'll order all units to switch over the radio, and I'll use my trumpet to signal the switch." After the 10 Vigilant firefighters from Truck 201 gathered near him, he continued, "Alright, our job as Vigilant Fire Company 5 is to go to the roof and begin rescuing people on the floors below with the ropes. We have people hanging from the windows. When Rescue 201 arrives, we'll begin." The group then split up.

Blake, Yang, and Ruby then saw Rescue 201 pull up. Weiss stepped off of the back step of the truck wearing her gear and her SCBA. She said, "Alright, you guys need to stay out here. I'm going up with the other Vigilants to the roof. The meeting was let out early because of the fire. My dad and my uncle are also going with me."

"Good luck," Yang said.

"Before you go," Ruby asked. "Can I ask you something?"

"Make it quick, Ruby."

"Uhhh... Weiss..." Ruby blushed. "Are... Do you... Do you like girls?!" She then covered her mouth in embarrassment.

Weiss stared in shock. "Ruby... I... I'm sorry, but I'm not gay, or bi, or pan, or whatever. I'm straight. If you're trying to confess something to me, I'm sorry. I can't be with you. I'll explain later. I gotta go." She then ran to a group of 12 firefighters that were going to do the rope rescues.

Ruby said, "No..." Tears began to well up in her eyes as she hugged Yang. She then sobbed into her older half-sister's chest.

Yang said, "I... I'm really sorry, Ruby. Please... Stop crying... We have a job to do."

Then, Blake pointed and screamed, "Holy fucking shit!" Then, a thud was heard on the pavement as a trapped worker fell to the ground, barely missing the Vigilant firefighters.

Weiss screamed as the blood splattered on her and several other firefighters. Hermann screamed, "Jesus Christ! We gotta get up there soon or else more people are gonna jump!"

Ruby turned and saw the mangled body of the jumper and burst into tears again. A paid firefighter walked by and said, "C'mon, man. Stop crying and get to work."

Yang turned to him with a stern look and said, "She can cry if she fucking wants to."

The firefighter backed off and said, "Woah. Okay, okay."

Ruby then said, "No, you're right... I gotta get to work. I'm sorry about that. It's just that I got rejected by someone today and it hit me hard. Long story. And then, you know, that jumping guy happened."

"Sorry about that," the firefighter replied. "Anyways, we need help over at the triage centre. I see that you guys are all non-interior vollies. Come with me."

As the rest of the gang went to the triage centre, Ren helped Weiss clean up, using a paper towel to wipe the blood off of her coat and boots. He said, "That was fucking crazy, man." He then threw the paper towel away in a biohazard bag he had grabbed from the ambulance earlier. "Anyways, let's get to it. I got a pregnant wife back home, after all."

Weiss said, "Speaking of your team mates, I need to tell you a secret about Jaune."

"Go ahead."

"I'm kinda in a relationship with him now. Well... It's a small dating one..."

Ren just stared at Weiss blankly for a few seconds. Then, he said, "We'll talk about that after this. We have more pressing issues at hand, to say the least."

* * *

**PAGING: **460.5750 (Repeater/Mobile) _All tones are sent out over this channel, as well as the information of the call. There are 2 types of tones used by the VCFD: Alertonic* 1+1, used for pagers, chiefs, and paid stations, and Alertonic 2+2, used for the sirens of volunteer companies. This is the busiest single frequency in the entire department, since it covers the entire city._

**DISPATCH: **_The VCFD dispatch frequencies are not repeaters in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a full duplex system with voted receivers and a mixer. The received audio from the mobiles/portables is injected into the audio transmitted by the base station when the mixer is turned on. The mixer can be turned on and off by the dispatcher, and you generally won't hear the initial call from the mobiles/portables until the mixer is turned on. If you want to hear "mixer off messages", you need to monitor the mobile frequencies and be close enough to the scene in order to pick them up.__  
_DISTRICT 1: 154.0850 (Base)/154.2200 (Mobile)  
DISTRICT 2: 154.2500 (Base)/154.1000 (Mobile)  
DISTRICT 3: 154.2050 (Base)/153.8300 (Mobile)  
DISTRICT 4: 155.1450 (Base)/155.2950 (Mobile)  
DISTRICT 5: 155.4450 (Base)/154.3850 (Mobile)  
DISTRICT 6: 155.6100 (Base)/155.9550 (Mobile)  
DISTRICT 7: 154.1150 (Base)/154.5400 (Mobile)

**FIREGROUND:** _Each District has 2 fireground frequencies. Channel 1 is the one that is used the most in each district. Channel 2 is to be used when a Code 99 has been transmitted for an alarm operating on Channel 1 or per the request of the incident commander. After toning out the needed stations, the dispatcher will go over the dispatch frequencies of the District the emergency is taking place in and tell all units responding to the call the fireground channel they will use._  
DISTRICT 1: 453.1000 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 1)/453.1500 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 2)  
DISTRICT 2: 453.2000 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 1)/453.2500 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 2)  
DISTRICT 3: 453.3000 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 1)/453.3500 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 2)  
DISTRICT 4: 453.4000 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 1)/453.4500 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 2)  
DISTRICT 5: 453.5000 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 1)/453.5500 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 2)  
DISTRICT 6: 453.6000 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 1)/453.6500 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 2)  
DISTRICT 7: 453.7000 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 1)/453.7500 (Repeater/Mobile) (Channel 2)

**SPECIAL OPERATIONS: **_These channels are used only when requested by the incident commander, or, in the case of the administrative channels, by grounds security.__  
_HIGH-RISE OPERATIONS: 486.1125 (Repeated/Mobile)  
MASS CASUALTY OPERATIONS: 485.1875 (Repeated/Mobile)  
ADMINISTRATIVE 1: 487.2625 (Repeated/Mobile)  
ADMINISTRATIVE 2: 487.1375 (Repeated/Mobile)

* * *

Alertonic=Motorola/Plectron

Garnett=Gamewell


	4. Season 1: Part 4

Rope Team 1 was composed of all Vigilant firefighters: Lie Ren, Weiss Schnee, Winter Schnee, Lieutenant Alfred Schnee, Lieutenant Hermann Schnee, Adelmar Schnee, Michael Kirkridge, Amhlaidh Egret, Iomhair Rolfe, and Todd Bannack. They would enter the building on the first floor and them climb up to the roof. However, they would have to be careful, since the 8th floor was fully involved and the 9th floor was ripe for a flashover.

As the team climbed up the stairwell, they heard another thud as another person jumped. Hermann said, "Stay focused. We got guys yelling up to them not to jump."

Ren said to Weiss, "How many do you think are dead?"

Weiss replied, "Really? You're thinking about that? Well, there must be a lot of people up there, so I assume at least 5 or 10 right now, not including jumpers."

As the team climbed, they saw people run down the stairs beside them. They were often covered in soot and coughing. Michael, a 17-year-old and the son of the captain, said, "Who's gonna attend to those civilians?"

Alfred replied, "There's some guys from Excellence advancing with truck tools. They'll take care of any injuries."

Finally, after 12 minutes of walking, they made it to the 7th floor. To advance any further, they would need to wait for 3 Goodwill firefighters that were carrying up 2 attack lines. After 2 more minutes, the Goodwill guys joined up with the team and connected their hoses to a standpipe. Hermann said, "Open the door to the stairway to the 8th floor and spray into it."

A Goodwill firefighter, wearing his mask, nodded and burst down the door to the stairs. He then quickly got out of the way just in case any flames jumped out at them. He then yelled, "Charge the standpipe lines!"

Ren ran over to the standpipe and turned it on. Soon afterwards, as he and the rest of the rope team masked up, the Goodwill firefighters sprayed into the burning stairway. Weiss pointed to the stairs and said, "I see some bodies in that doorway!"

A Goodwill firefighter pushed the bodies out of the way as the 3 of them advanced up the stairs. The team soon followed them as 2 paid firefighters broke a window on the 7th floor to gain access to it from a ladder truck. Amhlaidh said, "Don't trip! How many bodies are in here?!"

Alfred replied, "I counted about 6 or 7! Holy fuck, this is bad!"

Finally, after about 10 minutes of waiting, climbing, and stopping in excessive heat and smoke, they made it to the roof. There, they found 28 trapped people. One of them screamed, "There were like 700 people here for a NAAF event. We all ran up here from the 10th floor."

Weiss ran over and said, "Alright, we're gonna keep you here for now. We're gonna start roping ourselves to the floors below and try to rescue anyone still trapped and bring them to the 6th floor."

"Good luck. I don't think anyone on the 8th or 9th floor is still alive."

Iomhair was the first to go. He was lowered to the 10th floor to rescue a trapped girl, no older than 15. He reached his arms out and said, "C'mon. Grab on. We're going down to the 6th floor."

At first, the girl was reluctant, but she then jumped onto her. Holding onto Iomhair's rope was Weiss, Michael, Todd, and Amhlaidh. "I'm scared of heights."

"Wanna know a secret? Me too." Iomhair then laughed as he signalled for him to be lowered. As they passed the 8th floor, they could feel the fire lick the rope and themselves. "Be calm. Just hold onto me and don't let go."

Finally, they reached the 6th floor, and Iomhair and the girl climbed onto the floor. Iomhair unclipped himself as a volunteer and a paid firefighter assisted the girl. Iomhair radioed, "Rope Team 1, bring the rope back up and do another one."

For this one, Weiss would go. She would rescue a man no older than 30 also on the 10th floor. As Weiss was lowered down for her first rope rescue, she said to herself, "Well, here goes nothing. Ohhhh shit..."

The man screamed, "Help me! Help me!"

"I'm coming, sir! Hold on!" Finally, Weiss reached him, and he jumped onto her. Weiss said, "Holy shit!" Weiss could barely lift the heavy man as they finally reached the 6th floor.

Now that the last 2 people in the building that were alive above the 8th floor were rescued, the team would have to deal with the people on the roof. Ren said, "We could lower them to the 6th floor."

Alfred replied, "Are you sure?"

Hermann said, "Ren's right. Let's go."

3 people, Ren, Hermann, and Amhlaidh, would be responsible for lowering the 28 people. Ren would lower the children, Hermann would lower the women, and Amhlaidh would lower the men. Ren would go first. "Alright, you with the wolf ears that looks to be about 7, come here."

The child ran to him and said, "Mister Fireman, what's gonna happen to us?"

"I want you to hold onto me and not let go. We're gonna lower you from the roof to the 6th floor. Don't be afraid. This fireman isn't gonna let you go." Ren smiled. "Ready?"

The child nodded and said, "Yeah!"

Ren and the faunus child were then lowered over the side. Ren said, "Hey kid, what's your name?"

"Abel White," the child replied.

"Abel, what do you wanna be when you grow up?"

"A policeman like my daddy," Abel replied. "He's at work right now."

"Really? You wanna be a cop? Good for you. There's a policeman in my fire company. He's a cool guy. Anyway, I think we're reaching the 6th floor now. This is where I must go now, Abel."

"Bye, Mister Fireman," Abel replied as he was handed over to the firefighters on the 6th floor.

"Goodbye, Abel." He then signalled to be brought back up for another rescue.

Ultimately, the 28 rescues took 37 minutes. By the time the last rescue was completed, the fire was beginning to die out as firefighters gained the upper hand.

* * *

At 2, the fire was declared under control. From 12:21 to 2, the 8th and 9th floors were completely gutted, and half of the 9th floor had collapsed. Additionally, the 10th floor was halfway gutted.

Now that the fire was out, the main job would be to count the dead and injured, as well as overhaul.

At the triage centre, Yang and Blake were tired out. They had counted hundreds of people as either green tag, or minor injuries, yellow tag, or major injuries, red tag, or life-threatening injuries, or black tag, or dead or expected to die. Yang said, "Ruby's not doing too well. After about an hour of triage, the IC had to tell her to take a break because she was crying so much."

Blake replied, "Ouch. Are you sure Ruby's ready for firefighting?"

"Well, she trains well, and she's dedicated, but she doesn't react well to seeing people die in front of her."

"Ruby's younger than us. She's also a bit more innocent too. Could that be a part of it?"

Then, District 2's assistant chief said, "Hey vollies. You 2. Get over here now."

Yang and Blake stood up. Ruby also came out from an ambulance and said, "Hey guys, what's going on?"

The chief said, "Thanks for helping out. Man, this was a fucked up fire. I had to keep track of all the tags that were assigned. Last time I counted, I got 185 black tags."

Ruby, Yang, and Blake all reacted with shock. Yang said, "No fucking way, chief."

Ruby fell to her knees and said, "One hundred... Eighty-five.." She then fainted and collapsed to the ground.

The chief yelled, "Get some water over here! A vollie fainted! She needs help!"

A paid firefighter ran over with a bottle of water and said, "What happened?"

Yang got down to Ruby and said, "C'mon, wake up, Ruby."

As the paid firefighter poured water on her face, Ruby shot up and said, "What happened?!"

Blake replied, "Calm down, Ruby. You just fainted. You're okay now." She then turned to the chief. "Want her to go get checked out?"

"Sure," he replied. "Go to one of the ambulances. We're not gonna transport you, but a firefighter will check you out."

Ruby got up and walked to a nearby ambulance. Yang went with her. Blake turned to the chief and said, "Any guesses on what caused the fire?"

"Too early to tell," the chief replied. "But I would not be surprised at all if it was arson."

* * *

_**July 3, 2020**_

An emergency meeting of the Ruling Council of the Kingdom of Vale was ordered on this day by the King*, Delwyn IV, in regards to the NAAF fire. Attending the meeting were over 2,000 spectators watching the proceedings in the grand and lavish auditorium. On the stage of the auditorium were the 24 seats of the council members surrounding the King's seat in a semi-circle.

To begin, the King said, "Attention. This emergency meeting of the Ruling Council will now come to order on the 3rd of July in the year 2020 since the birth of man from dust. The topic of this meeting concerns a fire that had occurred on June 27, 2020. This fire took place at the headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Faunus, or NAAF. It, so far, has claimed the lives of over 180 people, faunus included. While it is too early to establish a definitive cause, as of now, all signs point towards the fire being of malicious origin. Tonight, we will have the council determine the facts from fiction in regards to this event, and several others like it in the near future as we uncover more details. Councilperson Andersen, you may present.

Alexander Andersen was a 35-year-old, relatively young for the council, and had been elected to the council in 2020, beating the former incumbent in a landslide. He was controversial for arguing for greater military control over the government. He said to begin, "As we speak, there are still emergency forces at the NAAF headquarters clearing out bodies and inspecting the ruins for structural instability. To the common layperson of Vale, do you wanna know who exactly is present there? The same people who, in the city of Vale, answer each and every single emergency call? Unprofessional and untrained volunteers."

Weiss, watching the proceedings in the auditorium with her family, had her jaw drop as several other firefighters in the audience reacted in numerous ways, ranging from facepalming to jaw-dropping.

"Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo all have military and government-operated professional emergency services in their major cities. In fact, Atlas' emergency services across the ENTIRE country are under complete military control. So why is it that we, as the Kingdom of Vale, cannot do away with the outdated system of volunteer firefighters and militarise our public safety services? The world of Remnant is dangerous, and dangerous situations call for full-time and paid professionals who are staffing their stations 24/7."

Weiss whispered to Winter, "Holy fuck, this guy's an idiot."

Winter replied, "I think I just heard my brain shoot itself from the amount of stupid it had to process."

"I also call for fire and ambulance services to be separated. There is no reason why we need a fire engine running to an ambulance call, even if the engine can beat the ambulance by a few minutes. Firefighters are supposed to do one thing and one thing only: Put water on fire. The ambulance attendants will carry rescue equipment and bring people to the hospital. Police officers arrest the bad guys. If we can do this, we can downsize not just the city's fire department, but the fire service in our country as a whole. Fires are at an all-time low. We don't need a fire station in every neighbourhood anymore, and we certainly don't need young, untrained, and unqualified volunteers mishandling calls."

Hermann then got up and shouted, "My King and Sovereign, if these proceedings are going to be nothing but an attack on the firefighters of Vale, then I will gladly invite any first responder, whether they be a firefighter, a police officer, or an EMT, to join me in leaving these ridiculous proceedings!"

Alex replied, "Sit down, sir! You are an observer, not a speaker!"

The rest of the Schnees then got up and exited the auditorium, followed by about 50 others. Delwyn IV said, "Councilman Andersen, are you finished?"

"I am, My King and Sovereign."

* * *

The platoon consisting of Team RWBY and Team JNR was being teamed up with another platoon in a high-risk hunting mission in the ruins of Mountain Glenn. Jaune, as the commander of the company, was to stay behind with Nora and Ren at the command post. The mission was to kill 2 Nevermores that were threatening Valeanian Air Force aircraft in the restricted airspace above Mountain Glenn.

In the ruins, Team RWBY was chatting about the events of Friday. Yang said, "Andersen really said all that?"

"Every last fucking bit," Weiss replied.

"He sounds mentally screwed up in the head," Blake replied. "He honestly thinks we just put water on fire?"

Ruby said, "How was he even elected? That's what bothers me."

"No clue," Weiss replied. "We made a lot of news for leaving those proceedings abruptly." Then, they heard a Nevermore's roar. "Quiet down, I heard a cry."

Ruby then pointed with the Crescent Rose. "I see one!" Sure enough, there was a Nevermore sitting on one of the ruins. "Let's get its attention."

Yang then radioed, "Platoon Team 1 to Firebase, we have a G-Class 5 in sight. Ready to engage, over."

Nora radioed back, "Clear to engage, over."

"Roger that, Firebase." Yang then turned to the team. "Let's kick some ass."

Ruby shouted to the Nevermore, "Hey Mister or Misses Nevermore! Down here! We're a couple of vulnerable humans! We taste pretty damn good!"

The Nevermore turned to them and immediately began flapping its wings. It then flew towards them. Blake shouted, "Now!"

Yang and Weiss jumped onto the Nevermore. Yang then used her Ember Cecila to force the beast onto the ground. Weiss followed up by jumping off and freezing the beast's tail. Afterwards, Weiss and Yang high-fived. Yang said, "Fuckin' A, Weiss."

Ruby and Blake then said, "Our turn!" As the beast tried to use its wings to break free from the ice, Blake used her Gambol Shroud to cut the wings in 3 spots each in rapid succession, rendering them useless and the beast flightless. Ruby then finished it off by getting on top of the beast and putting 3 bullets into the back of its neck with Crescent Rose.

Ruby said as the beast dissipated, "There we go."

"Yang then said, "Boarbatusk!" A large Boarbatusk then charged at the group.

Weiss said, "Piece of cake." She then charged at the beast and as the beast jumped to try and tackle her, she stabbed it in the stomach with her Myrtenaster, killing it instantly. "See? I told you. Piece of cake."

Yang then radioed, "Platoon Team 1 to Firebase, we have neutralised the G-Class 5 and we also neutralised a G-Class 2 that engaged us. What is the status of the second G-Class 5 at this time, over?"

Ren radioed, "At this time, G-Class 5 number 2 is being engaged. We are awaiting a further update from Platoon Team 2, over."

"Roger that, Firebase."

The leader of the second platoon team then radioed, "Platoon Team 2 to Firebase, the second G-Class 5 has been neutralised, over."

"Roger that, Platoon Team 2."

Yang said to the group, "Let's head back to Firebase. We did good today, girls."

* * *

At 8:12, George and Yang returned from a night out. George said as he let Yang into his apartment, "That restaurant was kinda slow, but the food made up for it. You made a good call tonight."

"Thanks," Yang replied. "Anyways, I wish I could stay the night, but I gotta go by 10." The 2 then walked into the apartment.

"That's okay. Wanna drink?"

"No thanks. I would like a little something else, though." Yang's tone of voice then changed to a seductive one. "You know what I mean, darling."

"I see," George replied as he kissed Yang. "Why don't we go to my room and put that idea of your's to work then, Yang."

"I love the way you think." Yang and George then got up and walked to George's room. "I wanna try something new."

"Well then, let's try it, Yang."

For the next 13 minutes, Yang and George had sex. It got loud at certain parts, and George certainly enjoyed the 'new thing' Yang wanted to try out.

Then, at 8:25, just as their activities ended, they both heard the familiar beeping of George's pager. Yang, still panting, said, "Damn it!"

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 285 for Vigilant Fire 5 and Goodwill Engine 6 for 104 Weeping Willow Street for an odor of gas in the residence. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 285 for Vigilant Fire 5 and Goodwill Engine 6 for 104 Weeping Willow Street for an odor of gas in the residence. Fire Alarm signing off at 2026 hours, Alarm Operator 182."

George and Yang quickly got dressed and ran out of the apartment. Yang got in her car as George ran to his fire station. As he ran, Yang called out, "Love you, George!"

George then ran back and passionately kissed Yang, surprising her. "I'll be back, Yang." He then ran fast, as if the ground itself was fire.

As Yang drove away, she said to herself, "What the fuck just happened?"

* * *

After the call, Hermann decided to talk to his daughter Weiss at 9:08. "Listen," he said as they both went behind the fire station. "I have a confession to make."

Weiss was confused. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry for what I've said about faunus in the past." He then exhaled. "I'm sorry I let my prejudices become so hateful. Listen, remember those arguments we had in the past?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I shouldn't have done that. Now I know why you were hesitant to show me your friends until your later Beacon years. Listen, I know I have my prejudices, and I'm not gonna excuse them because I know they're wrong. I see potential in Blake. She will make a great firefighter, and I'm not gonna hold her past against her."

Weiss was silent for a few seconds. Then, she said, "I see. Dad, I'm sorry for calling you those names and cursing at you all those years."

"You don't have to be, Weiss. I apologised and talked to Winter as well. I mean, she is 28 years old and has a 3-year-old son and a 5-month-old daughter at home. I don't want them to be exposed to any nasty arguments or hate. That's why I have decided to empty out any baggage I have with my 2 beautiful daughters."

"Makes sense. Speaking of which, why hasn't Winter changed her last name yet? She's been married for 2 years now."

"Well, as you know, my balls apparently don't like boys based on my results with you and Winter, so maybe she's hesitant to let the family name die out."

"Okay, first, WAY too much info. Second, Schnee isn't gonna die out. We still have a lot of relatives, and Uncle Alfred has 2 sons and 1 daughter."

"I've been reminding her, but she doesn't want to yet. Her kids have her husband's last name of Trenowden. Ultimately, it is up to her. Anyways, I gotta run. I love you, Weiss." He then hugged Weiss.

Weiss hugged her dad back and said, "I love you too, dad."

* * *

_**July 7, 2020**_

Blake tiredly got up from bed at 8, almost falling off in the process. After taking a shower to wake herself up, she got dressed and dried her hair to go downstairs and check her apartment mailbox.

When she got there, she opened her box up with a key and noticed a letter inside. "Huh... I wasn't expecting mail today other than junk." She then opened the envelope with the letter. Her eyes then widened as she smiled and said, "Yes! I was accepted!"

The letter was an acceptance letter from the Fire Alarm Office. It told her to report to the office for training on July 10 at the beginning of 2nd Shift, lasting from 8 to 4, for training. Then, a voice from behind her said, "Why are you so happy today?"

Blake turned around and saw Ruby staring at her. "I got accepted to the Fire Alarm! I finally have a well-paying full-time job apart from hunting!"

Ruby replied, "Good for you, Blake. It's gonna be so weird hearing your voice on the radio."

"I know," she replied. She then ran back upstairs to show Weiss and Yang.

Ruby said to herself, "That's out of character for her. Usually, I'm always the bright and cheery one." She then laughed to herself.

* * *

**The Kingdom of Vale, in theory, is ruled by the King, in this case being Delwyn IV. However, in practice, the Parliament, a tricameral legislature, has all of the law-making power. The King Regent (or Queen Regent in some cases due to the 40th Amendment of 1936) possesses the executive powers of the country, signing laws into power and serving as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as well as occasionally signing into power "royal orders" that are within their legal power under Vale's Constitution of 1649.**

**Elections are held every 4 years for seats in the Ruling Council. Originally, there was only 1 election, and the top 24 candidates received the 24 seats. However, in 1879, an amendment to the Constitution, the 29th of 47 such amendments, changed this, and since then, there are 24 elections held in an election year, 1 for each seat. These seats are not attached to any geographical areas.**

**In the House of Commons, the 52 manors of Vale are represented proportionally by their population. Elections are held every 2 years. There are currently 312 seats.**

**In the House of Lords, there are several types of seats. The Lords Spiritual are the leaders of the 10 biggest religions in Vale. They occupy 20 appointed seats. The Lords Temporal are composed of the lords of the 52 manors of Vale. There are 52 Lords Temporal, all of which are inherited. This makes the House of Lords the only unelected house of Parliament.**


	5. Season 1: Part 5

_**July 10, 2020**_

Blake showed up for training at 7:30. She walked into the front door of the fire headquarters and said to a woman at the front desk. "I'm Blake Belladonna. I'm here for fire alarm training." She had her bow on.

"Got it," the woman replied. "Training is in the Fire Alarm Office's conference room. There, you'll be directed by the director."

Blake nodded and said, "Thank you." She then went onto an elevator. As she pressed the button to the 3rd floor, she heard her cellphone ring. She answered it and said, "Hello?"

"Hello, Blake," Sun said on the other end. "How's it going?"

"Oh hey there, Sun. I'm going to job training."

"Really? When will you be done?"

"I'll be home by 4:30. Why?"

"I was thinking we could do something."

Blake smiled. "I see. I'll call you when I go home, Sun. Bye."

"Goodbye, Blake."

Blake then hung up and thought, _"Sun has a crush on me. I'm fucking calling it right now. He should know exactly who he's falling for, though."_

* * *

By 9, the trainees were let loose to the dispatch consoles. Blake was put on the Paging console with a veteran dispatcher named Caol Ó Riagain, who had 25 years of experience. He was also a volunteer firefighter for Protection Fire and Engine Company 1, the oldest fire company in the city. Caol said, "I assume you're new here."

"Exactly," Blake replied. She then took off her bow and revealed her cat ears.

"You're a faunus?" The man was intrigued.

"I am. I'm a Vigilant firefighter."

"Vigilant, eh? You know the Schnees?"

"Weiss is my best friend. Of course I do."

Caol grinned. "Those Schnees love to throw money at their fire company. That's why they can get the best and newest equipment while other vollies in the rural and agricultural parts have to make do with equipment that's over 30 years old. I mean, at least they aren't throwing their money at something illegal and giving back to the community, but still." Then, a call popped up on the CAD screen. "Oh goody, we got a call. You know what, I'll let you dispatch it, new girl. You know what to do?"

"I think so." Blake then got up to the microphone of the radio console, pushed the transmit button, and said, "Vale City Fire Alarm, standby... Mateo Engine 13 for a... Charlie Response medical call at Box... 425."

"Mateo's pager tones are on that console. They're marked with the number 13. Remember, do not hit the siren tone console. This is just an EMS call."

Blake pressed the button for Mateo's tones and then pressed another button saying 'TONE XMIT.' Mateo's pager tones then played out on the radio. Blake then pressed the transmit button again and said, "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 425 for Mateo Engine 13 for a Charlie Response medical call for... 155 Mayer Street for a 42-year-old male with a history of heart issues complaining of difficulty breathing. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 425 for Mateo Engine 13 for a Charlie Response medical call for 155 Mayer Street. Vale City Fire Alarm signing off at 0908 hours, Training Alarm Operator T875."

"Not bad," said Caol. "Remember, for the number zero, never say zero. You are supposed to say 'oh.' Additionally, always use single digits to spell out a multi-digit number. You called the company 'thirteen' instead of 'one-three' and the man's age as 'forty-two' instead of 'four-two.' Other than those rather miniscule mistakes, you did pretty good. What's your name, again?"

"Blake Belladonna, sir. Thank you."

* * *

At 12, Weiss and Jaune were having lunch at a street cafe in Vigilant's area. As they ate, they chit-chatted about how life was treating them after graduation. "My line of work at the moment is pretty much doing stuff at my father's company," Weiss said. "Surprisingly, it's harder than I thought. Some days it can be something as simple as looking something up, and on others, he can call me down to sort through and organise hundreds of documents in one sitting."

"Ouch," Jaune replied. "As for me, I've been doing mostly Signal Academy-related stuff. I work part-time as a teacher there to supplement my hunter's income." (A/N: Hunters have a base pay of 65,000 Valeanian Lien, or 52,000 USD, per year. This goes up depending on years of experience and rank.)

A waiter then came over and said, "Would you 2 like for me to refill your drinks?"

"Yes, please," Weiss replied. "Limonade for me. Jaune, what would you like?" (A/N: Limonade is a soda with a hint of lemon flavouring with sugar. It is popular in France in real life.)

"I would like Green Tea, please."

"Got it. It's on the way." The waiter then took the 2 glasses on the table and walked to the kitchen inside.

Jaune then turned back to Weiss. "So, about us."

"What is it?" Weiss looked confused.

"So we shouldn't hold hands or kiss in public yet, right?"

"It would not be the best idea. Ren already knows, and he doesn't seem too amused."

Weiss then saw Pyrrha's mutilated ghost sitting at a table behind Jaune. She said, "No shit he wouldn't be amused."

Weiss quietly mouthed, "Not now, asshole!"

Jaune said, "Uhhh... Who are you talking to?"

"Me? Uhh... No one... It was nothing..."

"Anyways, the thing is, I would like to do something, though."

Weiss replied, "Kiss on the cheek sounds good, though." She then gave him a peck on the cheek.

Pyrrha's ghost facepalmed and gave Weiss the middle finger. Jaune replied, "Thanks, Weiss."

"Don't mention it, Jaune." She then looked at Pyrrha's ghost and quietly mouthed, "What the hell?!"

Pyrrha replied, "I'm outta here." She then disappeared.

Weiss thought to herself, _"What the everloving fuck is up with me?"_

* * *

At 1:30, Weiss and Ruby ran to the station for a Bravo-response car accident. Ruby said, "Was that Blake dispatching us?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Weiss replied. "C'mon, get your gear on and get on the rescue rig."

As Weiss got her gear on and jumped into the cab, Ruby tried to join her. However, another firefighter said, "Get on the rear step. All 6 seats are occupied."

Ruby defeatedly replied, "Okay." She then ran to the rear of the rescue-pumper and stepped onto the rear step of the unit. She then grabbed the handlebar above the hose bed and clenched it, holding on tight as the rescue roared out of the station, closely followed by the captain's car.

As the rescue's sirens blared and it drove at speeds of over 50 MPH, Ruby could feel the wind hitting her in the face as she said to herself, "Wow! This feels great!"

Then, they stopped at the accident, which was being attended to by the ambulance and a police car, and Ruby almost hit her face on the rescue. She then stepped off of the rear step, her hair a mess as she grabbed her helmet off of the hose bed and pulled her boots up. Weiss walked to her and said, "How was your first back step ride?"

"Holy shit," Ruby said. "That... That was something else..."

Weiss then patted her on the back and told her, "Good. Now go grab the kitty litter. We need to clean up the fuel."

As Ruby grabbed the litter, the 2 paid firefighter-paramedics, as well as 2 volunteers who had joined them, were busy treating the patient. Ruby then walked over and began pouring litter on the spilled gasoline.

Then, Winter said, "Looks like the car battery is leaking dust. We should probably call for haz-mat assistance from the Airport. Problem is, they're over 45 minutes out."

"We'll wait," the captain of the company said. "In the meantime, I'll request a tone-out from Goodwill for assistance."

Weiss said, "Ugh... I hate waiting this long."

* * *

At 6, Sun and Blake hung out at Blake's apartment and were in the middle of an intense game of pool. As Blake lined up a shot on the table, she said, "Wanna know how I got this pool table?"

Sun replied, "Sure. Why not?"

Then, Blake landed the 5 ball into a pocket. "Well, Weiss hooked me up with it. His dad was getting rid of this old one and buying a new one for his house, so she asked me if I wanted it, since I like pool. I said yes, and thus, I got this vintage Armor Sports pool table made in 1959. I restored it in my free-time and now, it looks good as new.

Anyways, how's the Mistralian Hunting Force?

"Same as always," Sun replied. "I'm the Lieutenant in my platoon. Neptune, Sage and Scarlet are still in the enlisted ranks. My entire platoon of 4 sections got sent here for training at Fort Autumn as part of an entire company of hunters. You know, the cross-training exercise where Vale sends hunters to Mistral and Mistral sends hunters here called Exercise Red Leaves. I think Vale sent 3 companies as part of a whole battalion and we sent 1 this year.

How's your military experience going?"

"Not bad. I'm a Corporal. Jaune is the Lieutenant in my platoon. Ruby's a Staff Sergeant and commands the squad I'm in with Yang, Weiss, Nora, Ren, and until she was killed in a car wreck last year, Pyrrha."

"That's terrible. She was a good hunter. How's Jaune doing?"

"He's doing well now. I don't know if he's dating anyone yet."

Then, they were interrupted by Blake's pager. "Will that siren turn on?"

"It just did. The siren tones follow the pager tones. And it sounds like a box alarm."

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 297 for a Box Alarm at 47 Bristol Avenue for Vigilant Fire 5 acting Excellence Fire 7, Goodwill Engine 6, Valeanian Legion Ambulance 12 acting Enterprise Steamer 10, Valiant Hook and Ladder 13, and the Assistant District 2 chief. Caller reported his apartment on the 5th floor is full of smoke. The fire alarms are also going off at this location. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 297 for a Box Alarm at 47 Bristol Avenue for Vigilant Fire 5 acting Excellence Fire 7, Goodwill Engine 6, Valeanian Legion Ambulance 12 acting Enterprise Steamer 10, Valiant Hook and Ladder 13, and the Assistant District 2 chief. Vale City Fire Alarm, signing off at 1809 hours, Alarm Operator 341."

Blake said, "I gotta go to that, Sun. You can stay here as long as you want."

"Thanks, Blake." Sun then sat down on a couch as Blake ran out of the apartment.

By the time Blake got to the station, Ambulance 201 was already out the door with the 2 paid firefighters and 4 bunk-in volunteers. 2 other volunteers had started up Truck 201.

As she put her gear on, she saw Ruby and Yang run into the station. Weiss was already in the truck by this point.

Blake said as Ruby ran to her gear, "Sun's back at my apartment."

Ruby replied, "Sun Wukong? Him? You guys are dating?"

Blake slightly blushed and said, "No we aren't. Ruby, we haven't done anything except for play pool."

Yang looked in curiosity, thinking, _"So she's out on a date with Sun, of all people? Wait, why am I concerned? I have a boyfriend... Or... Well... You know, that may be the first time I admitted George was my boyfriend. Ugh... Forget about it now, Yang. You got a fire to attend. I wonder if he's there."_

Within 3 minutes, the truck pulled out of the station with a full crew of 10, 5 interior. Winter was driving. She said, "Ladies and gents, PD confirmed a Code 99! Howard Greenfield Hose 17 is rolling out!"

Weiss said, "Alright then. Let's get to work."

Blake replied, "5th Floor, huh?"

Yang said to Ruby, "Too bad we can't go in."

At 6:17, as Truck 201 got closer, the District 2 Chief requested a Second Alarm, bringing in 5 more companies, which would include Excellence and Enterprise, who had both just been released from a medical call. Winter said, "Sounds like a really bad one for them to transmit a Second Alarm so soon."

As Yang got out, she spotted George, wearing Goodwill's turnout gear consisting of yellow pants, a black coat, and a yellow helmet. "Hey Georgie! Over here!"

George turned around and ran over to Yang, hugging her and saying, "It's so good to see you, Yang! I bet you could spot me because of my company's radically different gear."

Yang then let go. "Probably. It looks weird compared to my company's gear. Anyways, what's your company gonna do?"

"RIT. It sucks because we can't go in unless a guy gets hurt or trapped. I mean, I can't go in anyways, because I'm still receiving Basic Firefighter training, but still."

"Awwww. I'll stay out here with ya."

As Yang and George watched the fire and awaited orders, Weiss, Winter, and Ren got their masks on and prepared to enter the building with 3 other Vigilant firefighters. As they got ready, Ruby said to Blake, "That air bottle must be heavy."

"Speaking of that," Blake replied as she grabbed an axe to hand to Winter. "I heard we're gonna use SCBA's in training soon. Get hype." She then handed the axe to the now fully-suited up Winter.

Ruby replied excitedly, "I can't wait! We'll finally go into a fire!"

Inside the building, the team of 6 crawled through the burning 5th floor of the wide apartment building. On one side, the floor was fully involved. On the other, there was a rapidly growing smoke condition.

As the team went past a door, Weiss thought she heard someone. "Wait up!"

Winter said, "What is it?"

"I hear something from this door." She then pounded her fist on the door in question.

Ren said, "Alright. Winter, use the axe."

Weiss then shouted to whoever was behind the door, "Back away from the door!"

A female voice called back, "Hilf mir! Hilf mir! Ich bin schwanger!" She then cried out in pain.

"She's pregnant and speaking Atlesian." Weiss then shouted back, "Zurück weg von der Tür! Wir benutzen eine Axt! Bist du verletzt?!"

The lady again cried out in pain. "Das Kind kommt!"

"She's giving birth in there."

Ren replied, "Jesus Christ, couldn't her body have picked a better time than this?"

Weiss then broke the door down and saw a young woman, no older than 25, holding her belly as she tried pushing her baby out. Weiss said, "Wie heißen Sie?"

"Eva... Ich heisse Eva."

"In Ordung. Eva, müssen Sie auf mich hören. Wir haben nicht genug Zeit, um Ihnen heraus zu bringen, bevor das Kind geboren ist. Wir werden Sie bei der Geburt hier zu unterstützen. Nun atmen Sie tief durch und schieben so hart wie du kannst, Eva."

Eva then began to breathe and push in cycles as Ren said, "That's it. Keep doing that."

Winter, watching the doorway, said, "How much longer before the smoke fills all this up?"

Another firefighter said, "A few minutes, 6 minutes tops."

"Shit... That Eva girl better pop that baby out of her hoo-hah quickly, or else we're all screwed."

Weiss then said to Winter, "Radio command and tell them about us."

Winter then radioed, "Vigilant Interior to Vigilant Command, we're tied up with a pregnant patient on the 5th floor, bravo side, who is in labour at this time."

"10-4," Vigilant's captain radioed back from outside. "Do you need extra personnel?"

"Negative. We are good at this time." Winter then sighed.

Ren then said, "I can see the baby's head!"

Weiss assured Eva, "Du machst das großartig, Eva. Nur weiter pushen. Ich kann den Kopf des Kindes zu sehen.

Was ist das Geschlecht des Kindes?"

"Der Doktor sagte, es war ein Mädchen," Eva replied. "Sie ist mein erstes Kind. Mein Verlobter hat mich verlassen, nachdem ich schwanger wurde. Er hasste Kinder." She then pushed again, causing the entire baby's head to be exposed.

Ren and Weiss then held onto the baby's head as several more pushes finally released the newborn from the mother's body. It let out a gasp and cried. Weiss said, "Sie ist schön, Eva. Und ja, es ist ein Mädchen. Der Doktor hatte recht." She then handed the baby to Eva, who began to cry. Weiss thought to herself, "What kind of self-righteous asshole leaves their fiancee alone while she's pregnant? I understand you don't want children and this was probably accidental, but it just seems so wrong. At the very least, he should've waited until the pregnancy was over to break up with her."

"Ich fühle mich so in Konflikt," Eva said between cries. "Ich liebe meine Tochter schon so viel, aber sie erinnert mich an mein Verlobter."

Winter then said to her, "Eva, es ist sein Verlust. Er ist, verdient keine Ihrer Zeit. Sie werden einen anderen Mann oder eine Frau zu finden, wenn Sie in diese Art der Sache, die gut für Sie und Ihr Kind bringt bist. Lassen Sie uns die Hölle hier raus."

Weiss then found a sink in the room and cleaned a knife she carried. She then used it to cut the umbilical cord. She then used a bobby pin to close off the stump of the umbilical cord on the baby. She then held the baby as Ren, Winter, and the other 3 firefighters helped Eva onto her feet. Winter then carried her on her back, foregoing her SCBA set and leaving it to Ren to carry as they ran to the stairs. As they left the room and darted down the hallway, Ren turned back and saw smoke envelop the room they were in.

When they got to the 4th floor, they were greeted by several other firefighters who immediately took Eva. The gang followed them as they then ran to the 3rd floor.

As they then got to the second floor, Eva's placenta began to come out, spilling blood on the floor. Weiss said, "Hurry!"

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they made it outside. Weiss placed the baby in Eva's arms as she was lifted onto a stretcher and rushed to an ambulance. As the gang began to calm down and take deep breaths, they were greeted by a thunderous round of applause from onlookers and fellow firefighters. Ruby ran up to Weiss and said, "We were really worried back there for a second. I'm glad things turned out okay. Now all we gotta do is disinfect all of you guys' gear."

Hermann walked up to Weiss and patted her on the back, saying, "That was some damn fine work. I'm proud of you, Weiss. Same goes for your sister, Winter. If your mother could only see you guys now..."  
Weiss hugged her father back. Winter joined in as well. They both said, "Thank you..."

* * *

_**September 25, 2016**_

Things had been going well at Beacon Academy for Team RWBY's second year of study so far. The classes, for now, were relatively easy compared to last year, and everyone was in generally high spirits.

After a class in which there had been a pretest, the gang chatted in the library. Yang said, "Pretests are nothing but horse... Feces." Yang had hesitated to use a more explicit word for 'feces' after another student walked by. "It's like sending a completely untrained civvie out to fight a Nevermore or something and expecting them to learn right away."

Ruby replied, "It was haaaaard. I barely knew a thing about 40 of the 50 questions on it. At least it ain't a graded class work assignment. I'm pretty sure Dad would have a fit if he got word that me and you got less than a third of the questions on a test correctly, Yang."

Weiss replied, "Same with my parents."

Blake replied, "Well, my parents are dead, so they kinda can't give an opinion on the matter if I don't do good on the test."

"Wow," Ruby replied. "That's... Uhhh... Dark?"

Then, Weiss' cellphone rang. "Hello? Dad? Why are you...? Wait... Repeat that last sentence again for me, please."

Weiss then paused for a full minute. She then hung up the phone and quietly put it down on the table.

Blake said, "Weiss, what's wrong?"

Weiss then grabbed her cellphone and her bag and quietly walked out of the library.

Yang said, "It sounds serious."

Ruby then checked a news app on her phone. One of the headlines was, "Firefighter Struck and Killed by Drunk Driver at a call." When she saw the picture of the firefighter who was killed, she dropped her phone and gasped.

Yang and Blake then looked at Ruby's phone. Yang said, "Jesus..."

Blake got up and said, "I'm gonna look for Weiss."

Ruby said to Yang, "Her own mother, killed at a call. Damn... You know, me and Weiss do share a few things in common. It's too bad that this is one of them now."

Yang put her arm around Ruby and said, "It's okay. Let's go find Weiss."

* * *

**Genoveva Schnee, born as Genoveva Ross, was born in 1970. She was the daughter of a firefighter in Excellence Fire Company 7 and first met Hermann Schnee, born in 1968, at a fire in 1985. They fell in love soon afterwards and were married in 1993. Their marriage was tumultuous at times with the pressures of running the Schnee Dust Corporation as well as the attacks against it and the Schnee family by the White Fang.**

**She was a certified Intermediate Firefighter-EMT and transferred to Vigilant Fire Company 5 in 1991 after moving in with Hermann. She left behind 2 children: Weiss and Winter.**

**She died in 2016 after a drunk driver struck her at the scene of a gas leak, becoming the first Vigilant firefighter to die in the line of duty since 2009, as well as the 56th and so far last to die since the company's inception in 1818 to 2020. The driver who hit her is currently serving 15 years behind bars for vehicular manslaughter (10), driving while intoxicated for the 3rd time (3), and reckless endangerment (2) resulting from the crash, as well as another 30 years for violently resisting arrest (2), 2 counts of assault on a police officer with a vehicle (10 each), and 4 counts of violation of probation (2 each) from the ensuing high speed chase.**


	6. Season 1: Part 6

_July 31, 2020_

It had been nearly 3 weeks since the fire. Since then, no fires had come in for Vigilant. There was only medical calls, car accidents, and false alarms, the usual smells and bells ones.

Blake and Sun had begun dating, but had not done anything sexual yet. Blake still wished to test the waters with Sun and see how a full relationship would work out. As for Weiss and Jaune, things remained the same as before. Ruby still was single and a virgin. Yang and George both still had their relationship going strong, and it was clear that they both wanted it to get stronger.

* * *

At 12, Blake, who was working the phones with 4 other dispatchers, was about to take a 30-minute break when a call came in on the police line, indicating it had been a rerouted 911 call. Blake quickly answered it, saying, "Fire Department, Alarm Operator T875."

"My husband just fucking shot himself," a female voice yelled. "Oh my God! His face!"

"Ma'am, calm down. Where are you?" Blake began typing on a computer.

"I'm at my house at 677 Ripley Road! I'm covered in blood! He fucking shot himself right in front of me!"

"Alright, are police on the way?"

"They said they were!"

Blake sighed. "Alright, we'll send the fire department over for the ambulance. Call us back at 010-453-9221 if you need to directly update us with any more information. Calm down. Everything's gonna be alright." She then hung up and sent the info of the call to the paging station through the CAD system. "Holy shit, man..."

Another dispatcher turned to her and said, "Tough call, huh?"

"Yep... Husband shot himself in the face in front of his wife." She then rubbed her eyes and got up. "I'm going outside to smoke."

The dispatcher replied in a mocking tone, "That'll kill your lungs, young one."

"So will being a firefighter, even with SCBAs, and you don't see me stop doing that." Blake then signed on a sign-out sheet and left for her break.

* * *

Yang, working a brand new job at a recruitment office for the Hunting Corps in Goodwill Engine 6's first-due, got off of work at 4 after working for 8 hours. As she got on her motorcycle, she said to herself, "I'm loving this. 4 days a week is a great idea!" Her job entailed taking phone calls from people interested in becoming hunters and making phone calls to other recruitment offices across the country. She was paid 35 Lien (24.5 USD) per hour and worked from Tuesday to Friday on odd weeks and Monday to Thursday on even weeks.

Before going home, she decided to stop by at George's apartment. She parked in front of the building and walked in. She smiled as she went into an elevator and was lifted to the 2nd floor. She then turned right and walked to George's apartment.

She knocked on the door. "Georgie, are you there?"

"Of course, Yang. Come on in." George then opened the door. "I just got back from work over at the printing shop. We had a huge job today involving 500 copies of some political pamphlets."

"Really? For who?"

"That asshole city councilman who wants to cut paid firefighters. Still, money is money, and customers are customers."

"Oh. That guy." Yang then closed the door and said, "So, as for me, I just got out from the recruitment office. It's great. They got good play and good hours. Plus, if I got a mission, they won't fire me since they're part of the Hunting Corps."

George then walked away to grab a box on the kitchen counter. "By the way, I got this for you." He then handed it to Yang, who opened it and found a necklace. "450 Lien (315 USD) well spent."

Yang smiled as she put the necklace on and said, "Oh my God... Thank you so much!" She then hugged George.

"Yang, I want to tell you something." The 2 then split, still holding each other at the waist.

"Of course."

"These past 6 or 7 something weeks have been the happiest I've ever been in my life, Yang, and you are the reason why. That is why I feel as though we are serious enough to warrant me saying this." He then held her right hand. "I love you, Yang Xiao Long."

Yang looked at him in surprise. She replied, "George, you are a very nice man, and you make me very happy. The thing is... Love is a strong word... But... My feelings have grown for you. Originally, I just wanted you in my pants when we first met. Obviously, things have grown. Now, I can't stop thinking about you, and I see you in my dreams a lot." She then embraced George and leaned in for a passionate kiss. After the kiss ended, she said, "I love you, George Owenfield."

George then laughed, followed by Yang. Then, their moment was interrupted by the sound of Goodwill's siren roaring up in the background.

George ran over to his pager and turned it on, catching several dispatch tones as well as the message.

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 289 for 22 Interview Street for Vigilant Fire 5, Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence Fire 7, Enterprise Steamer 10, and the Assistant District 2 chief for a Box Alarm for reported flames in an abandoned apartment building. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 289 for 22 Interview Street for Vigilant Fire 5, Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence Fire 7, Enterprise Steamer 10, and the Assistant District 2 chief for a Box Alarm for reported flames in an abandoned apartment building. Time is 1619 hours, Alarm Operator 341."

* * *

_August 1, 2020_

Ruby and Yang went out to the town while Blake did overtime and Weiss did duty time at the firehouse. They decided to do a pub crawl of 5 well-known bars in the Mayer-Mateo neighbourhood. "Ruby," said Yang as they walked to the first bar. "This neighbourhood is often nicknamed the Meatpacking District. While there used to be several large meat packing factories that closed up and moved elsewhere, there's another reason why it's called that name."

"I don't get it," Ruby replied. "Meatpack-" She then paused. "Oh... That..." She then giggled.

"Mayer-Mateo is the Meatpacking District, and the Townley neighbourhood is nicknamed the Scissor District. There's only one reason why they call it that. I think you can guess why."

"Yang, really?" Ruby then burst out laughing. "That's just... Wow..."

Then, Ruby accidentally ran into a man, making him drop his phone. The man said, "Oh, I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay," she replied. "Let me pick up your phone for you." As she reached for her phone, she noticed the name on the phone, which was still on, said 'Delwyn.' "Here you go." She then paused. "Wait a second..."

The man began to get worried. He looked to be about 20 and was wearing jeans and a red t-shirt. "Uhhh... Do you recognise me from somewhere?"

"Yeah... You kinda look like the king... I mean, it must be a weird coincidence to look like him and share his first name."

The man then sighed. "Alright... Now, you 2 girls must promise to not say a word, alright?"

Yang replied, "Of course. Our lips are sealed."

"Good." The man then got quieter. "I am the king. I come out to the city streets once every so often in casual clothes and enjoy myself when I have the time. I've been doing this for a month and I have not been caught until now."

Ruby could barely contain her excitement. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!"

Yang said, "Calm down, Ruby. You don't wanna attract too much attention." She then shook hands with Delwyn IV. "It's an honour to meet you in person, your majesty."

"Thank you. What are your 2 names?"

"I am Yang Xiao Long," Yang replied. "This is my sister, Ruby Rose. We went out tonight for a pub crawl in the LGBT area of the city. I'm pan, she's bi."

Ruby said, "I recently came out, and I unfortunately got my heart broken soon afterwards."

"I'm sorry about that," the king replied. "So, you 2 are pub crawling too? Can I join?"

"Sure! The more the merrier!" Yang then led the 3 of them to a bar. "By the way, we're vollies with Vigilant Fire Company 5."

"Really? That must be an interesting experience. I assume you know the Schnee family then."

"We more than just know them," Ruby replied. "Weiss Schnee is our best friend, and she hunts with us. We're also hunters. We went to Beacon together. Weiss helped me, Yang, and another friend of ours named Blake get into the fire company. Unfortunately, she was the girl I was talking about earlier with the whole broken heart thing."

"Wow. That's interesting. So, ladies, who'll pay? I'm up for it." The group then sat down at the bar area of the restaurant they were at.

"Nah," Yang replied. "I got this. I'll let you do the next one."

* * *

_August 3, 2020_

Ruby, Yang, Blake, and Weiss all talked about the pub crawl with Delwyn IV at the firehouse's rec room. Blake asked, "So no one had recognised him at all until you 2 did?"

"Nope," Yang replied. "I'm shocked. Then again, he could pass for a random everydude if he wasn't the king."

Ruby said, "He was very friendly. He talked about how sometimes, the stress would get to him. After all, he's been king for 2 years and he's only 20 years old. It's a shame his father got into that car crash."

Weiss replied, "I know. That was a very sad day. Anyways, has he mentioned contacting you guys after that?"

"He gave us his personal cell number," Ruby replied. "He told us we could call at anytime on Saturdays, since at any other day, he'd be working."

Blake asked, "How do you know it's him?"

Ruby then pulled up a selfie she, Yang, and Delwyn had taken. "That is definitely the king. The face gives it away. Plus, he showed us his driver's licence, which has his royal status noted on it."

"I'm surprised he has no security," Weiss replied.

"He carries a loaded handgun wherever he goes," Yang said to Weiss. "It's concealed and he carries his firearm licence, his Firearm Category I, II, III, and IV permits, and his concealed carry extension permit in his wallet."

"Wow," Blake replied. "He possesses all of those?"

Ren then walked over from an office. "Hey girls. What are you all talking about?"

Ruby quickly replied, "Uhhh... We were talking about... Uhhh..." She then looked at a firefighting magazine. "VMC's bankruptcy! Yeah, that! That sucks, right? A lot of companies had trucks on order from them before they went under."

Ren replied, "Oh, that. It's a shame. They used to make good trucks before 2001, when they were restarted after 5 years of dormancy and became Vale Junk Corporation."

Weiss laughed. "I still can't believe some companies stuck with them for so long after the reorganisation. Their new trucks sucked."

Then, the pagers went off. "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for..." The girls ran to a printer and read the information of the call. It was a medical call for a 55-year-old male complaining of chest pains.

"I'll go," Weiss said. "Anyone else?"

"I'll go too," Ruby replied.

"Me and Blake will stay here I guess," Yang replied.

Weiss and Ruby then hopped aboard Ambulance 201 alongside the paid guys. One of them then radioed, "Fire Alarm, Ambulance 201's en route with 4." The ambulance then pulled out of the station.

At 5:04, 2 minutes afterwards, the ambulance arrived at the location of the call. Ruby, Weiss, and the 2 paid guys stepped out and walked into an apartment building. Ruby went to a board of the apartments in the building and said, "It's on the 2nd floor."

She then joined the others as they walked up to the 2nd floor and walked down the hall to an apartment. A paid guy opened the door and saw a messy room and a man on the floor. He said, "I think that's our patient."

Weiss, holding an EMS bag, walked in. She said, "Sir, can you hear us?" After she got no reply, she said, "Sir, can you hear us?"

Ruby said, "I think he's out cold." She then helped wheel a stretcher into the room.

"Oh crap," Weiss said as she felt for a pulse which was not there. "He's going into cardiac arrest!" She then began doing CPR on the man as a paid firefighter hastily ripped the man's shirt open. He then got out 2 defibrillator paddles and rubbed gel on them.

Weiss stopped doing CPR as the paid guy said, "Clear!" He then shocked the man. Weiss then began doing compressions again before the man was shocked once again.

For 20 cycles, the man was compressed and shocked. Finally, after the last one, they gave up. Weiss said, "God damn it, we lost him."

Ruby then said, "But... What if you... No... I need a moment..." Ruby then sat down on the floor.

Weiss walked over to her and said, "C'mon, get up, Ruby. We can't save everyone." She then helped Ruby off the floor as the paid firefighter zipped the man's body up in a bag. By now, 2 police officers had arrived to document the death.

* * *

At 6:18, Ambulance 201 returned to quarters. Ruby was still shaken up by the fact that a man had just died in front of her and they could have saved him. Weiss said to her as they walked away from the ambulance, "Listen, Ruby, it's fine. You've seen worse. You saw that bad fire at the faunus place, right? You can't get so down on yourself like this."

"I'm sorry," Ruby replied. "I'm just new to all this. I mean, I've been in combat, but only against Grimm."

"Don't worry. You'll get used to this one day, Ruby. C'mon, let's go play some pool in the rec room."

Ruby smiled. "I'm totally up for that." She then jokingly elbowed Weiss. "I'll kick your ass, Schnee."

Weiss replied, "More like I'll kick your's." The 2 of them then laughed.

Meanwhile, Yang, Blake, and 2 other volunteers also doing bunk-in duty were cleaning Truck 201 when George walked into the bay. A volunteer went up to him and said, "Hello there. What's your name?"

"George Owenfield," he replied. "Goodwill Engine 6." He then showed him his pager.

Yang walked over and gave George a tight hug. "Awww, you came to visit me, Georgie."

George hugged back and said, "That I did, Yang." The 2 then separated. "So, what's going on over here?"

"Just doing a 6-hour with my friends from 4:45 to 10:45. How about you?"

"I came by to see your beautiful self, that's all." Yang giggled in response. "So, any calls?"

"My sis and Weiss went to a medical with the paid guys. Me, Blake, and Ren stayed here. You know, changing subjects, we don't have much longer before we get our Basic Firefighter-CFR certs. I'll finally be able to do interior work. I can't wait."

"Me neither, Yang. So, wanna do something Friday night?"

"Oh... I can't... Me, the girls, and Ren are all gonna be attending a briefing for an upcoming hunting mission."

"Oh. Okay then. Well, there's always another time, my love."

Yang jokingly said, "You're too kind." The 2 then kissed.

Ren looked at them, smiled, and said, "Get a room, you 2." After they both looked at him, he said, "Nah, just kidding." They all then laughed.

Meanwhile, Blake was texting Sun, who would also join in on the upcoming hunting mission with several Vacuouan Hunters' Corps units. "u got any details Sun?"

"theyre fuzzy," Sun texted back. "but I heard the mission is going 2 b the 1st part of a larger operation"

"what larger op?"

"an op to extend the city's borders and build a 2nd wall 3 miles out from the 1st 1"

Blake thought to herself, _"What the hell? That sounds impossible. They'd have to napalm the forests to do... Oh... Wait... If they expand the walls that far, they'll incorporate all of Mountain Glenn. August 8 is the anniversary of the destruction of Mountain Glenn. I see what they're trying to do..."_


	7. Season 1: Part 7

_August 7, 2020_

Ruby, Yang, Blake, and Weiss all reported to their Regiment Headquarters at Beacon Academy at 7:30 AM. The military had excused them from their civilian jobs from August 7 to August 15 and reimbursed the businesses for revenue lost. Their entire regiment, the 18th Hunting Regiment, was to be deployed alongside 3 other regiments from the 3rd Hunting Brigade, consisting of at least 6,000 hunters. They were to be assisted by the 18th Wing of the Valeanian Air Force, consisting of 86 aircraft, and the 8th Combat Aviation Brigade of the Valeanian Army, consisting of 110 helicopters and 4,000 soldiers. It would be the largest hunting operation to date.

After a 3-hour-long briefing by several military generals, Team RWBY and Team JNR met and talked with Glynda, Oobleck, and Ozpin. Ruby said, "So, Doctor Oobleck, or should I say Major Oobleck, how are things at Beacon?"

"The students are as active as ever," the green-haired man said, wearing a military uniform. "Ironwood is gonna be substituting for me while I'm off fighting. While you guys all get to go home on August 14 and 15, I have to stay until September 1 to oversee the rotation of hunting groups. I don't get why they just don't have all the hunters stay with the operation until it's finished like they used to 10 or 15 years ago."

Ozpin then said, "It's because most hunters have civilian jobs, and in the case of Team RWBY, are volunteer emergency personnel. They want to have cooling-off period, especially for younger hunters."

Jaune said, "I wholeheartedly agree. Being a lieutenant is a stressful job. It's a good thing I have friends who can help me out, like Sergeant Rose over here." He then pointed towards Ruby.

Nora said, "Too bad I can't go on the front lines 'cause of good ol' Ren or Nora junior." She then rubbed her belly. "I'm stuck back at the supply and command post with the officers."

Then, Ruby saw Delwyn IV walking amongst the crowd, talking to several generals. "Hold on a sec, guys, I'm gonna go talk to someone."

Yang replied, "See ya later, sis."

Ruby then walked up to Delwyn and saluted him, saying, "Greetings, your majesty."

Delwyn turned to Ruby and said, "At ease, Ruby. So, are you a little nervous?"

"I'll admit, I am." Ruby shrugged. "Then again, who wouldn't be? I imagine you are too."

"Oh you have no idea. I was a big part in planning all this, and my legacy rests on whether or not this operation succeeds or fails. I'm gonna address the kingdom in the morning tomorrow when the attack begins. Good luck, Ruby."

"Thank you, Delwyn. By the way, do you have a nickname?"

"Why yes I do." He then giggled. "My mom, the Queen before my dad, the King, died, called me Delly when I was younger. She says she used to call my dad that when they were younger, before my dad ascended to the throne."

"Delly, huh? That's a cute nickname... Delly."

Delwyn then laughed before seeing some generals look at him. He then changed demeanour. "Hey, Ruby, can you keep a secret?"

"Uhhhh... Is it a national security one, because if so, you probably shouldn't tell me."

"No, no, no, it's a personal one. You see, I think some of the generals here don't respect me because I'm like 20, and they're all like 50 or 60. They see us giggling and shit, and they think I'm too immature to rule a kingdom. It can really hurt when the people that swear allegiance to you and the kingdom you lead and protect with your very life don't even like you or trust you for such a petty reason."

Ruby paused. "That... That must suck... You have no idea how I can rate to that. I joined Beacon 2 years early. Despite this, I was made the leader of my team in school. I was a very competent and good leader, but I could tell that some did not respect me simply because I was younger, despite my long list of accomplishments at Signal Academy, such as building my signature weapon, the Crescent Rose, all by myself."

"Wait, you built that all by yourself? How old were you?"

"Uhhhhh... I started it when I was 13 and I finished when I was at least 14."

"Holy... Oh my God... Whoever doubted your leadership can go... Well... You know..."

"Same for you, your majesty." Ruby then hugged him.

Delwyn blushed. "Uhhhh..."

"I gotta go back to my team. I will see you later, Delly." She then smiled and walked away. "Bye!"

* * *

_August 8, 2020_

It was 5 AM, and Jaune met with his platoon at the supply and command post. He laid out the battle plan, which would involve taking out a nest of boarbatusks. "A scout copter using night vision says there's at least 8 of these bastards in the nest. It shouldn't be too difficult for the platoon. Ruby, you will take Ren, Yang, Weiss, and Blake to approach from the east. I'll take the others and lookout for any other Grimm that may charge on us. The attack will begin when I give the go-ahead on the radio. When that happens, launch a green flare and strike."

The platoon then split up. At 5:09, Ruby's team quietly walked through the woods. Ruby was armed with Crescent Rose, a flare gun, and 3 grenades. Yang had her Ember Celicas and a SchneeDefense AR-7, an assault rifle. Weiss had the Myrtenaster, a Koteas P-26 pistol, and a combat knife. Blake had the Gambol Shroud and a Koteas RPG-4 rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Ren had 2 StormFlowers and a Koteas P-26. Overall, the team was very well-armed.

Ruby said, "Blake, when I fire the flare, aim at the boarbatusks and fire the RPG. I'll then use my semblance to move in and slice a few up. Weiss, use your glyphs to teleport to the centre of the nest. Ren and Yang, kill any boarbatusk that makes it out of there."

Weiss said, "Can you see them yet?"

Ruby, looking through a pair of binoculars, said, "I can see them alright. I'll radio Jaune and tell him we're ready to roll."

As Ruby radioed Jaune, Weiss heard footsteps behind her, causing her to turn around. "Oh great, it's your dead ass."

Pyrrha's ghost stood in front of her. "Hey, no reason to be rude, Schnee. Just checking in on you guys to see how things are doing. Good luck with the mission, by the way. I wish I could go, but, you know, death."

Ruby then fired the flare into the sky and shouted, "Blake, aim and fire!"

Blake took a few seconds to aim at the general direction of the nest before she said, "Backblast!" The view was then illuminated with a flash of light as the RPG round was fired and then hit the nest, causing the boarbatusks inside to panic and charge at the team.

Ruby then fully unsheathed Crescent Rose's scythe form and charged at the beasts, slicing 3 and killing 1. "1 down, 7 to go!"

As a boarbatusk charged at Ren, he fired both of the StormFlowers at the beast, injuring it. He then sliced the weakened beast up with the blades of the guns, killing it. "That's 2!"

Blake activated her semblance and created 2 stone statues of herself to slow down 2 charging boarbatusks. She then stabbed one with her Gambol Shroud. Weiss froze the other boarbatusk with her Myrtenaster. She then decapitated it. Blake and Weiss together said, "That's another 2!"

Weiss then used a glyph to teleport to the centre of the nest, where 2 boarbatusks remained. They immediately charged at her. Then, Yang stopped one dead in its tracks with a blast from both of her Ember Celicas while jumping down from a tree. Weiss then fired Red Dust onto her sword, setting it on fire. She charged at the 6th boarbatusk and killed it with a stab to the underside, also setting it on fire. Yang said in response, "Nice kill, Weiss." She then looked behind Weiss and screamed, "Holy shit! Look out!"

A boarbatusk was charging at Weiss from behind. As it jumped up to trample her, Weiss froze in fear. _"How did I not see that one coming?!"_

Then, it fell to the ground, just short of Weiss, as Ruby stood on top of it. "I jumped on the thing and stabbed it a bunch of times with the combat knife Weiss must have dropped." She then got off and handed Weiss the knife. "I believe this knife belongs to you."

The final boarbatusk then began to run away. Blake shouted, "Don't let it get away!" She and Ren then ran after it. Blake then caught up to the beast and leapt upwards, Gambol Shroud pointing downwards. She then landed on the beast, the katana going all the way through the boarbatusk and almost into the ground.

Ruby cheered, "Wooohooo! Go Blake!"

* * *

At 12:30, the platoon met up back at the supply and command post. Jaune said, "Kills?"

Ruby replied, "My squad killed all 8 boarbatusks and 3 other assorted Grimm."

Cardin Winchester, a sergeant in Jaune's platoon, said, "My squad killed 2 nevermores and all 4 beowulfs."

"Good, good," Jaune replied. "My squad killed 2 ursas, a boarbatusk, and 3 death-stalkers."

Blake asked, "What are the initial reports from other groups like?"

"Very good, actually. So far, no fatalities have been reported, and I think the number of kills we have for Grimm are 102 including us. I'll check later for more updates."

Weiss said, "How many Grimm are out here?"

Yang said, "I think someone said there's at least 3,000 in the operation zone, if not more."

Blake said as she grabbed a cigarette from a pack, "It's gonna be a while before we kill all of them." She then grabbed a lighter and offered it to the group. "Want a smoke?"

Ren said, "Wait, you smoke, Blake?"

"Uhhh... Yeah... I've been doing it since I was like 14. I know, I know, it's bad for the lungs, don't do it, and all that shit, but with my lines of work, I have a greater risk of getting killed here or at a fire, especially with my former White Fang association. Plus, didn't we discover a vaccine for non-small cell lung cancer 2 years ago?"

"Oh yeah," Cardin said. "Pass me one."

Blake handed Cardin a cigarette and lit it for him. "So, Jaune, what's next?"

"Well," Jaune replied. "We've been given orders to rest until about 5. At that time, we'll receive another mission. I don't know what it is yet."

* * *

Yang called George on his cellphone at 4, around the same time he got off work.

George spoke first. "Hello?"

"Hey, George. How was work?" Yang smiled, feeling comfort hearing his voice.

"Went well enough. How about you?"

"The first mission we had was very successful. In about an hour, we'll go on a second one. How's the fire department?"

"You guys missed a fire at 3 in the morning. It went to 2 alarms and destroyed a 4th-floor office in a building. It was going good by the time I got there on Engine 202."

"Awww man! Anyone hurt?"

"No, surprisingly. When are you coming home, again?"

"August 15. I'll be sure to make up for the lack of love-making when I come home, Georgie." She then giggled.

George laughed as well. "Oh, I bet. I can't wait." Then, he heard his pager beep in the background. "I got a medical call to go to. Call me later?"

"Of course, my love."

"Bye, Yang."

"Bye, George." Yang then hung up. She then smiled and said to herself, staring up at the clouds, "I love him soooo much."

Suddenly, a scream was heard in the camp, followed by the roar of a Grimm. Doctor Oobleck, who was in the camp, ran up to Yang and shouted, "3 large nevermores are attacking the camp!" He then ran off in the direction of the nevermores.

Yang soon followed. Ruby, who was talking to Weiss before, shouted, "Kill them before they get one of us!"

As the gang ran to the nevermores, Oobleck and Jaune attacked one of the nevermores. Ren ran to the radio tent to guard Nora and their unborn child.

Oobleck said to Jaune, "Make it immobile! Kill its wings!"

Jaune nodded and jumped onto the right wing of the nevermore. He then climbed up to the joints in the wing and began stabbing them with a combat knife, causing the nevermore to scream in pain. He then thought, _"Wait! I can attach a grenade to the wing joints!"_ "Oobleck, get off! I'm gonna use a grenade on the right wing!" He then grabbed a grenade, pulled the pin with his teeth, attached it to the right wing joints, and jumped off the beast just in time to avoid the shrapnel of the explosion.

The nevermore fell to the ground flat as Yang then used her Ember Celicas to destroy the left wing joints. Oobleck finished the job by firing several fireballs at the head of the beast, killing it. "Nice job, fellas. Let's get the next 2."

Then, Weiss pointed up and screamed, "Doctor Oobleck!"

A nevermore suddenly grabbed Oobleck with its claws, impaling him several times over. His trademark glasses fell to the ground, bloody and broken. The nevermore then proceeded to pick at Oobleck's body, seemingly unaware of the humans near it.

Ruby fell to her knees and broke down in tears. Yang suddenly activated the final stage of her semblance in anger, shouting, "I'LL GET YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She then charged at the nevermore and jumped up, tears falling from her eyes in fury and sadness. She then fell down towards the nevermore, her right fist striking the murderous beast's head, smashing it into pieces.

The resulting blast knocked everyone around the beast down and could be felt and heard for over a mile. After the smoke dissipated, Yang stood up, breathing heavily. She then ran to what remained of Oobleck's body, which had been blown to bits by the explosion. As she walked over, she looked down and saw his head severed from his body, missing a part of the skull. Then, she heard the third nevermore fly away, scared off by the explosion.

Ruby said, "Oh my God... Yang..."

Ren and Nora ran out to the site. Nora shouted, "What happened?!"

Weiss, who by now had developed a thousand-yard stare, just looked at the 2 of them silently. Blake said, "Oobleck... Oobleck's dead..."

Yang then walked over, carrying what remained of Oobleck's head. "Find the rest of his body. We need to bring it back for burial."

Ren gagged and turned around to throw up. Nora covered her mouth and began to cry. She said to herself, "No... It can't be him..."

Cardin, who had just returned from a mission with his squad, said, "I heard a loud explosion. What the hell happened?!" Yang simply showed him Oobleck's head. "What the fuck?! What happened to Oobleck?!"

Jaune said, "Alright, listen up! Everyone, we're gonna get together and clean all this shit up. Then we're gonna call in a medevac copter to transport Oobleck's body parts. Now, go look for them. We need every part we can find."

A lieutenant colonel, the commander of the camp, then said, "Lieutenant Arc, I'll file a report. Jesus, this place looks like hell. I still can't fucking believe Major Oobleck was the one who would die. Are you still gonna do that mission at 5?"

"Can you try to push it back to 5:30, sir? My platoon might need some time to think this over."

"I totally understand. I'll have it pushed back to that." The lieutenant colonel then walked to the radio tent to file the report of the battle and Oobleck's untimely death, still shaking his head over what just happened. "Jesus fucking Christ..."


	8. Season 1: Part 8

_August 10, 2020_

It was 5 AM. The platoon had seen heavy combat the day before after 3 giant nevermores ambushed the command post followed by 6 other assorted Grimm. To rebuild the damaged post, a contingent of 50 sailors from the Naval Construction Unit worked through the night, keeping the platoon from falling asleep.

Along the front, things had been tough. The constant bombing of the forests had caused out-of-control forest fires, and now, water bombers were being flown in to help control the fires. Up to now, at least 350 Grimm had been killed at the cost of 16 deaths. The death of Oobleck had made national news and had generally reduced the morale of the hunters and the troops.

At precisely 5:30, Jaune woke up the entire platoon. "All rise and awake! Report to the briefing room now!"

Ruby tiredly got up and yawned, saying, "Another mission, sir?"

"Precisely. Now let's go."

At 5:40, Jaune sat everyone down in the briefing tent. "I have gathered my entire platoon here to inform them that we are to patrol the 3-mile-boundary until August 11. Squads Ruby and Cardin will patrol, and Squad Tan will standby and be flown in by helicopter if necessary."

The entire platoon grumbled. Yang said to Ruby, "Not this."

"Now, now, we have to do it. After all, who else will? Squads Ruby and Cardin ship out at 0615 hours."

Ren thought to himself, _"Nothing better happen to Nora while I'm gone. She's gonna be handling radio communications for us, so as long as she keeps replying to us, she'll be safe."_

* * *

As Squad Ruby patrolled the boundary zone, they kept watch for any active forest fires that may have been started by ordinance dropped from aircraft.

Weiss said to Yang as they walked over a creek, "Do you think we'll really clear out all the Grimm by November or December?"

"Not really," Yang replied. "This entire operation seems a little rushed. I only hope we don't lose anyone else close to us. Oobleck was hard enough to lose."

Ren said to the two of them, "Be careful, or you might jinx us."

Then, Ruby held her hand out and said, "Wait up! Shhh!" The entire squad then paused as they all heard rustling from a nearby bush.

Blake pulled out Gambol Shroud and Yang aimed her AR-7 at the bush. As Yang cocked her gun, the tension began building as to what was in or behind the bush.

Then, a feral cat walked out of the bush, looking at the squad for a few seconds before scampering off. Blake said, "Well that was disappointing."

"Uhhh," Yang said. "I don't think that thing will be, though." She then pointed at a boarbatusk charging at the group.

Ruby activated her semblance and sliced the beast in half by flying past it with Crescent Rose, killing it easily. "Piece of cake." She then spat on the ground beside her.

"That was still a disappointment," Blake replied.

"Well it was a figure of speech or whatever, alright?" Yang was a little annoyed at Blake's response.

"That isn't exactly a figure of speech, first off. Second, your tone of voice is a bit off, too." Blake fired back at Yang.

"My tone of voice was perfectly fine, thank you very much."

Weiss rolled her eyes and said to herself, "Oh boy..."

"No, it wasn't, Yang Xiao Long. It was VERY rude." It was clear by now that this would lead to an argument.

"Rude? Rude? Hahaha, Rude, right? That's all you can say?" Yang's eyes then changed colour.

"You're only making this shit worse, Yang!"

"Now that's rude, Blake. Maybe next time you should watch your definitions. I'm not in the fucking mood for this, considering I watched my old teacher die in front of me!"

"God damn it, he was mine too! We all saw him die, Yang! It isn't all about you, asshole! We all were hurt by Oobleck's death!"

Yang then flared in anger. "That does it!"

Ruby, extremely annoyed and angered by her best friend and sister arguing, then interrupted the argument by firing a round from Crescent Rose into the air before she screamed, **_"JUST MOTHERFUCKING STOP YOUR POINTLESS FUCKING ARGUING! YOU CUNTS HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT GIVE EACH OTHER DIRTY LOOKS, BARELY INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER, AND HAVE THESE STUPID FUCKING FIGHTS SINCE YOU BROKE UP! YOU TWO ARE SUPPOSED TO PUT THAT ASIDE AS TEAMMATES AND HUNTERS, OR ELSE YOUR CONFLICT WILL GETS US ALL FUCKING KILLED!"_** Ruby then took a deep breath. **"Do you assholes even like each other as friends anymore?! Do you two wants all of us to go back in boxes like Oobleck?! Do you want Dad to have to cry for us like she did for Mom, Yang?! Do you want to die without redeeming your name from the White Fang, Blake?!"**

Blake and Yang looked at Ruby, astonished at her outburst. Weiss and Ren's jaws dropped to the ground.

**"If not, THEN STOP IT! Either you two stop arguing, or I will have you BOTH court-martialed for obstructing us from carrying out our mission objectives!" **Ruby then broke down in tears, sobbing uncontrollably. "I just want my big sister and my best friend to all get along like we used to... Is that too much to ask? What happened to us? What the fuck happened to us?"

Weiss walked up to Ruby and said, "It's okay, it's okay."

Yang began to form tears in her eyes and said, "Sis..." She then walked up to her and hugged her as she also began to cry. "I... I'm... I'm so sorry I let that get between us... All of us... It's all my fault..."

Blake walked up to her and replied, "No, it isn't. It's both of us." Yang then separated from Ruby and hugged Blake. "Listen, Yang, we need to move on from our relationship. It's pretty clear by now you've moved on, and that George boy treats you like the goddess you are. And, I think I'm beginning to fall in love all over again with someone else as well. Let's bury the hatchet, metaphorically of course, and work together again."

Yang said, "Of course. I already knew I was a goddess beforehand, by the way." Yang and Blake then laughed. They then shook hands. "Now, who is it?"

"Who's what?" Blake looked confused.

"Who's the lucky boy or lady who has stolen your heart?"

Blake blushed. "Uhhhh... He's a faunus..."

"It's Sun, isn't it? And let me guess, he doesn't know?"

Blake then sighed. "Yes, and yes."

* * *

_August 16, 2020_

It had been less than a day after the team returned home. In their time in the operation, Jaune's platoon scored a total of 84 kills. In total, all forces had scored over 1500 confirmed kills, as well as countless unconfirmed ones.

Today would be the funeral of Doctor Oobleck. The platoon dressed themselves in their Ceremonial Uniforms and met in the centre of the academy grounds, where Team RWBY and Jaune had all first met just 5 years before.

"Before the service begins," Jaune started. "We've all been invited to see what was left of him in his coffin alongside his family and closest friends. I would like it if all of us could go. Now, they've said that his parts were pretty badly burned, so if you're uncomfortable with it, I will understand if you don't want to see his remains. To move on, I want everyone to remember Oobleck as a master at hunting, as an amazing teacher, and as a good friend. He will be missed dearly by all of us."

As the platoon made their way through the impromptu preparation room, Ruby, joined by Delwyn IV, said to him, "I wonder what they put in his coffin."

As Ruby and Delwyn went up, Ruby began to cry again. Oobleck, or what was left of him in various parts, was badly scarred and burned from the explosion Yang caused when she killed the nevermore that killed Oobleck. Alongside his remains was his thermos, badly charred but still in one piece, which as his weapon was to be buried alongside him as part of the Hunting Corps' custom for funerals and burial. Delwyn thought to himself, _"I hope I never have to send someone out to war again, not if it will lead to this." _

As Yang and George went up, Yang said to Oobleck's remains, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you in time, Doctor." She then gave him a salute and walked away, shaking her head in utter disbelief that he was actually dead. George held her hand as she walked.

Jaune saluted Oobleck's remains and said, "It's been an honour serving with you, Major." He then left a bouquet of flowers alongside his coffin. Weiss did the same thing right after him.

Blake and Sun went up together as well. Sun said, "Everyone from Team SSSN's still in utter shock. I bet he's already started his own coffee company in the afterlife by now."

Blake gave a short laugh and said, "I could see him doing that. I'm not even kidding. Didn't he once say that that would've been his plan B if he lost his job?"

"Oh yeah! I remember that! Good times, good times..."

* * *

The Amphitheatre was crowded with students, ex-students, family, and friends of Oobleck, as well as journalists from various news agencies, since Oobleck's death had made worldwide news.

On the stage was Oobleck's coffin, wrapped in the flag of Vale, alongside a picture of Oobleck in his military uniform. It listed him as "Maj. Bartholomew Joseph Oobleck, 1978-2020, Years of Service: 1995-2020." It also listed a quote from him, saying, _"I am a Huntsman because there is nothing else in this world I would rather be." _**(A/N: The Hunting Corps adopted the gender-neutral term 'hunter' in 2017, though many older hunters will still use Huntsman and Huntress.)**

After the beginning ceremonies, Ozpin took to the stand and began a speech. "My name is Brigadier General Michael James Ozpin. I am the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, and I have served my country as both a soldier in the army and as a huntsman in the Hunting Corps since I first went here as a student in 1985. I first met Ozpin when I was a teacher here. It was my first year teaching here at Beacon Academy. He was a very active student, and he often engaged in debates with other teachers and students involving various topics, such as faunus, campus policies, and foreign policy. He was one of several key participants in the fight to allow access to birth control on campus, and he also organised a petition with over 5,000 signatures to the Governing Council of Vale and the King of Vale at the time, Delwyn III, to pass anti-hate crime legislation for not only faunus, but also LGBT individuals, immigrants, and numerous ethnic and religious minorities. After he graduated from Beacon as a Valedictorian and served in active duty for several years, I contacted him and asked if he would consider becoming a teacher at Beacon. Of course, he took up the offer and became one of the most beloved teachers here."

Ozpin then looked at Jaune, confusing him.

"One example of how he impacted students would be a man who, when he first got here, was not a good fighter or leader at all. He had no control over his semblance or aura, and he reportedly faked his transcripts. Oobleck himself pointed out how he often did not pay attention in his class. Eventually, after improving his skills in his first year, Oobleck offered to give this man extra help outside of class. Multiple times, I let them fight Grimm by themselves in Emerald Forest. They ended up scoring many kills together. Today, this man is Lieutenant Jaune Arc, and he graduated at the number 22 spot in his class out of 678 students, an impressive feat considering he was at the very bottom when he first started." The audience then cheered and applauded.

Jaune smiled and said, "Thank you..."

"One of the last things Oobleck said to me was, pardon my language here, "I'm getting too old for this shit." I could tell he was saying it in a joking manner, but I still said to him, "Oobleck, you're 42 years old and have the energy of someone half your age. You won't be getting too old for this job anytime soon." He laughed and agreed with me. You know, I will always mourn his loss, but at the very least, I can take comfort in knowing that he died doing what he loved. Hunting Grimm was his life, and he was prepared to give up his life every time he went out onto the battlefield. And thus, the story of one of the greatest teachers in Beacon's history may be ending, but in all of you, a new story is just beginning. Thank you." The audience then applauded his speech and cheered.

After 6 more long speeches by Oobleck's family and friends, the amphitheatre fell silent. As the audience fell silent soon afterwards, the honour guard took the flag wrapped around his coffin and held it above the sleek and wooden coffin.

"Present, ARMS!" The cry of an honour guard captain pierced the air as all of the students, hunters, teachers, and other military personnel and royal family members gave a salute, while the civilians all placed a hand on their heart. Then, a lone bagpiper began playing "Going Home" to symbolise that Oobleck's soul was 'going home' in a sense.

After the song ended, the sound of pagers ringing and the Beacon Fire Company's nearby siren echoed throughout the area.

"Vale City Fire Alarm, per the request of Beacon Academy and Signal Academy, is activating the tones of Beacon Fire, Signal Fire, and Patch First Aid in memory of Major Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, who died serving the Kingdom of Vale on August 10, 2020, while fighting Grimm. May he rest in peace, and may his family and friends gain the strength to carry on. Time is 1006 hours, Alarm Operator 94."

Then, the honour guard folded the flag and presented it to Oobleck's older sister and her husband. They walked back to the coffin and then lifted it, carrying it down from the stage and through the middle of the amphitheatre as the crowd watched and continued to salute. Finally, once the coffin left the building, the captain shouted, "At ease!"

* * *

_August 17, 2020_

Today, the team met after working at their day jobs. Weiss asked as they all sat down in Ruby and Yang's apartment, "Did you guys remember to sign up for that makeup Basic Firefighter-CFR class tonight?"

Yang said, "We did after we came home yesterday. Me, Ruby, and Blake all went down to the station to sign up."

Weiss replied, "Good. You cannot miss a single class, or you'll fail the entire course. Say, how do you guys do during live burns?"

Blake said, "I have to admit, Ruby is the best one out of all of us. When we first all did it, I was actually scared shitless, but Ruby calmed me down."

"Awww," Ruby replied. "Thank you, Blake."

"I remember when I took it," Weiss said. "I was just 14 and I had been in the fire company for 2 years by that point. Those were some fun times. I still have my gear from when I first started. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit anymore since puberty and boobs happened, but I still keep it around as a memento to those days."

Yang laughed and said, "I'm sorry I'm laughing, it's just that part about puberty is both so weird coming out of your mouth, and I cannot imagine someone with a concave chest size."

Weiss laughed and said, "Oh shut up, Yang! Like any girl at 12 had a noticeable chest size. I have pride in my size or whatever I guess. I just don't give it much thought."

"Wanna see a picture of me at 12, Weiss?" Yang then took out her phone. "Here's me at Signal when I was 12. I had my hair in a ponytail back then because who the fuck cares. My chest size was B at the time. I was early, developing at 9 and getting a period just 2 months after I turned 11. I say my biological mom, Raven, was to blame, considering her chest size is F. Summer on the other hand was a C, explaining Ruby's growth or lack thereof compared to me."

"That... Is actually true..." Ruby was stunned. "I think you're right! I remember going through some of Mom's old clothes and finding some old bras while we were clearing out an attic at Dad's house."

Weiss was stunned. "Did you have any back pain?!"

"Oh hell yeah. Since I was DD by the time I was 15, I had back pain until the rest of my body caught up. The back issues stopped around the time I was 18." Yang then stretched.

Blake pointed at her chest and said, "It's odd how we suddenly began talking about these lumps of fat like there's no tomorrow. I think it says something about us."

"That we're very talkative?" Ruby asked Blake.

"No, that we're all a bunch of perverts." She then slowly held up Ninjas of Love 3. "And we're not at all ashamed of it."

Yang burst into laughter and said, "I love how Blake just confirmed that by holding up that book."

Ruby and Weiss also laughed hysterically. Weiss and Ruby then jokingly high-fived and said together, "Flat chests unite!"

They were then interrupted by their pagers all ringing, followed by several more tones.

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 245 for 158 Exeter Street for a Box Alarm for Vigilant Fire 5, Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence Fire 7, and Enterprise Steamer 10. Caller reported that their family is trapped in a burning apartment on the 3rd floor. It's gonna be Apartment 3 Dash 7. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 245 for 158 Exeter Street for a Box Alarm for Vigilant Fire 5, Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence Fire 7, and Enterprise Steamer 10. Time is 1756 hours, Alarm Operator 94."

The girls then all ran out of the apartment and down the stairs to the first floor. As they left the building, they saw the ambulance pull out from the Vigilant fire station. They ran like hell down the street to the station alongside several other volunteers as Car 5 sped past them. As the girls got their gear on, Ren ran into the station as well.

Within 3 minutes, Lieutenant Alfred Schnee hopped aboard the now-full Truck 201 and radioed, "Truck 201 to Fire Alarm, we're responding with 10, 6 interior." At the same time, Car 5 and Ambulance 201 were reporting smoke showing from the 3rd floor as well as multiple witnesses from the building telling them of the fire, upgrading the fire to a Code 99.

Iomhair Rolfe, driving the truck said, "We got a working one, fellas!"


	9. Season 1: Part 9

At 1802, Truck 201 arrived at the fire. Everyone got out quickly, and Ruby, Blake, and Yang all ran to the back of the truck to grab a supply line from the truck. Their job was to connect the line to a hydrant nearby. As Ruby and Yang hit the hydrant, Blake connected the other end to the pump of the ladder truck. Once the ends were connected, Ruby radioed, "Truck 201, here comes your water to the pump!"

Iomhair then took over pumping duties as Blake handed an attack line to Weiss, who was suited up in an SCBA. As the 5 SCBA-equipped firefighters from the truck then congregated at the front door of the apartment building, Rescue 201 arrived with a crew of 9, soon followed by Engine 202 with a crew of 11.

Once these trucks were on scene, Alfred radioed, "Interior to Truck 201, charge our 2 hand lines, we're going in." The 5 firefighters then walked into the building and went up the stairs. As they began to walk from the second floor to the third floor, a woman shrieked and ran downstairs, screaming, "There's kids up there! There's kids up there!"

Weiss shouted, "Ma'am! Ma'am! How many?!"

"At least 8 or 9!" She then ran down the stairs to the first floor before presumably running outside.

Alfred radioed, "Interior to Command."

The Assistant District 2 Chief, who just arrived, replied, "Go ahead."

"We got a woman claiming there's at least 8 or 9 trapped upstairs. You might wanna strike a second alarm."

"Duly noted, will do."

"10-4." Alfred then said to the team. "Everyone, mask up."

Weiss and Ren were the first to go up, holding a hose line. Ren said, "Apartment 3 Dash 7, right?"

"Yep, that's the one." Weiss and Ren could barely see on the third floor.

"Hey Weiss, I feel something on the floor." Ren then looked down and found that he had stepped on a child, no older than 12. "Oh fuck! It's a kid!"

Weiss then turned around and shouted, "GUYS! UNCLE AL! WE GOT A KID UP HERE!"

Alfred then ran up the stairs to Weiss and Ren and said, "Give 'em to me!" Ren then handed Alfred the unconscious child. Alfred then ripped his helmet and his mask off despite the choking and blinding smoke and put the mask on the child.

Weiss and Ren then crawled to the burning apartment, now fully-involved. Weiss said, "No... No... We gotta get in there and get those kids!"

Ren held her back, saying, "God damn it, stop! It's fully involved!" Ren then sprayed into the apartment. However, he was soon forced back when part of the ceiling collapsed in the apartment, pushing the flames out. He then felt another person that was on the ground nearby, this time an adult. He shouted, "Weiss, we got an adult victim!"

Weiss quickly crawled over and helped drag the victim with Ren. As they went down the stairs, they could hear the person's head bump with each step. Alfred and Todd Bannack quickly grabbed the adult victim from Ren and Weiss and carried her down to the outside. Weiss radioed, "Interior to Vigilant Command, tell Truck 201 to raise the ladder to the 3rd floor! We need more guys up here!"

"10-4, how many?!"

"At least 5 more guys!" Weiss thought to herself, _"We're gonna have fatalities. There's no other fucking way. Oh God..."_

Ren said to Weiss, "Let's go up again!" The 2 of them then ran up the stairs and searched the hallway of the 3rd floor. Ren found 2 kids and Weiss found 1. Within 15 minutes, they were all evacuated down the ladder of Truck 201.

As Ren and Weiss climbed down the ladder, bringing the last kid with them, a flashover suddenly occurred, engulfing the entire 3rd floor and knocking Weiss down, causing her to tumble down the ladder and also trip up Ren. Blake, Ruby, and Yang all ran over and caught Weiss and Ren. Ren was relatively okay and ran to an ambulance to get help for the kid, but Weiss was unconscious.

As she was laid down on the ground, Hermann ran over and said, "Weiss! My Weiss!" He ripped the SCBA, the mask, and the helmet off of Weiss. Ruby then unbuckled Weiss's coat and began rolling down her hip boots so she could take them off.

As Ruby ripped the now-rolled down boots off from Weiss's feet, she suddenly woke up and said, "Where... What...?"

Hermann asked her, "Wie geht's dir, Weiss?!"

Weiss groggily replied, "Vater...? Was ist passiert?"

"You went unconscious, Weiss. A flashover tripped you on the ladder."

"Oh, I see... Agh, fuck, my head hurts..." Weiss got up and felt her head.

"Well, at least you haven't had any noticeable mental damage from that, given the fact you were able to switch between 2 languages."

2 firefighters then walked over with a medical bag and opened it up. "Check if she has any cuts or bruises, guys."

"Wait, what about the kids?! That lady said there were 8 or 9 up there but we only got 4 kids and an adult out!" Weiss suddenly panicked.

Hermann said, "Don't worry, Weiss, don't worry. Listen, we can't go back up there. We're gonna focus on pulling people out from the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, floors. You'll stay OOS for the rest of the fire." He then walked away. "I gotta go in."

Weiss then looked down at herself, horrified that they had to leave at least 4 or 5 civilians behind because of the flashover. She then broke down in tears, crying, "No... No... No..."

Ruby hugged Weiss and said, "You did the best you could."

"But... It wasn't enough..." Weiss sobbed into Ruby's shoulder as the other firefighters continued to fight the fire.

By now, an angry crowd from the neighbourhood had formed, and they were not happy at the firefighters, particularly the volunteers. One of them shouted, "Amateurs!" That man then gave them the finger.

Captain Kirkridge, noticing this, walked over to the crowd and yelled, "Take that back!" He then radioed Fire Alarm to request police forthwith for harassment by civilians.

"You pricks are too slow! Why do we rely on you?! Hey, I'm talking to you, asshole!"

Finally, Captain Kirkridge snapped and said, "Shut up! We did the Goddamn best we could! We can't save everyone all the time! You wanna help us be faster, huh?! Then why don't you volunteer with us and actually help us change instead of sitting on your ass and complaining?!"

Alfred said to Arthur, "Captain, woah."

The paid firefighters on scene did nothing and ignored the sparring match as some of the volunteers from multiple companies congregated at the boundary tape. Another woman said, "You assholes wanna go?! We'll fucking go, fags!"

Yang suddenly shot up, walked over to the woman, and angrily said, "What, the fuck, did you call me?" Her eyes also changed colour.

"I called you a fag, 'cause that's what you are, faggot!"

She then took her helmet off and pointed at a pink, yellow, and light blue sticker on her helmet. "Wanna know why I have this on my helmet? Because I like people for who they are in their personality, not what they have in their pants. I'm ordering you to take back what you said, or I'll bash your face in." She then put her helmet back on her head.

Ruby said to herself, "Oh God, here goes Yang again, going off at another ignorant dickhead."

"So you really are a fag? Hah, see? My point is proven! Well then, bitch, I'll just take your oh-so-precious helmet then!" She then grabbed the helmet from Yang's head, also ripping off a long strand of hair in the process.

"You... You ripped off a bit of my hair..." Yang then activated her semblance and screamed.

The woman then punched Yang in the shoulder. Yang followed by punching the woman in the chest and launching her 10 feet into the air, scaring the crowd. They then backed away as Yang walked up to the woman and told her, "Who's the fag now?" She then grabbed her helmet and walked back under the boundary tape.

George, wearing his own company's gear, then ran to her and said, "Yang, are you alright?!"

"I'm fine. You might wanna get help for that homophobe, though." Yang then turned to 2 paid firemen and said, "You guys might wanna help that woman I punched."

They nodded slowly and walked over with an EMS bag to the homophobic woman. George said, "My God, Yang, that was... Wow..."

"I kinda let myself get away. I'll bet the tabloids will have a fucking field day with this. Ohhh shit..."

* * *

The trucks returned to the station at 10:14. Everyone was silent as all Vigilant firefighters who responded to the fire were ushered into the meeting room after taking their gear off.

The captain then spoke up. Arthur said, "Alright, ladies and gents, listen. Unfortunately, we had 6 fatalities, 5 of them children, in the fire. Additionally, that incident with the unruly crowd also landed all of us in the news. I want everyone to know that sometimes, this happens. Our older guys will remember that we've had a few fights in our history at fires. The last time we had a big fight was in 1994, when 5 companies fought after fighting a 3-alarm warehouse fire in District 1, including us. Now, what happened at Exeter Street wasn't much of a fight as it was a curb-stomp battle, considering that the woman who was attacked was knocked out in one hit. Now, legally, we are not responsible, since the crowd started the confrontation, and the woman struck Probationary Firefighter Xiao Long first, not to mention the homophobic slurs she threw at us."

Then, Alfred spoke. "We're not gonna punish anyone within the company for what happened there. The trauma from losing those kids would be more than enough if any punishment was needed. Of course, if any of you guys do not cooperate with police if they do launch an investigation, you will be suspended, and if you lie, you will be expelled. Also, I want no one making any statements to the media unless me, Hermann, or Arthur say you can. Doing so will get you expelled. No exceptions."

Hermann then spoke. "Finally, before the fight, Firefighter-EMT Weiss Schnee and Firefighter Lie did slip off of the ladder. They're both fine, and they both refused medical transport. Also, I just got a call from the hospital and I have good news. The good news is that the 5 guys we did pull out from the third floor are still alive. While we couldn't save them all, we did save many of them. Keep that in your minds. Focus on what we gained, not what we lost, okay? If anyone needs to see a shrink or anything, please do it. Suicides amongst firefighters, cops, and medics is rising as it is, and if one of y'all actually killed yourself, it would not put us in a good mood, to say the least. But seriously, if you need help, get it. Also, since the fire took away time to go to training for anyone that missed the BFCFR class last Saturday, you can also retake it tomorrow from 6 to 10."

Afterwards, Winter went over to see Weiss, still shaken by the fatalities. Winter said, "It's odd..."

"What is?" Weiss looked confused.

"It's odd how you barely reacted to the NAAF fire, and yet you were so shaken by this fire."

"That's because I could have prevented the deaths in this case! With the NAAF fire, I expected people to die. Granted, I was still pretty shaken up that so many died, but at least I was expecting some deaths. In this case, I thought we could save them all." Weiss wiped her eyes. "Jesus..."

Winter hugged her and kissed her head, saying, "Little sis, do you need help?"

Weiss shook her head. "No. I'll be fine. It's just some nerves. After all, I've seen you cry at calls too."

* * *

When Weiss got home, she immediately turned her pager off and opened the fridge. "Hello there, Mister Booze," she said in a mocking tone of voice. She then grabbed a bottle of Vodka and began drinking it.

She turned the TV on and watched a late night show. As she drank more, Jaune texted her, saying, "r u ok? heard about the fire"

Weiss texted back, "yeep im fne jaune how bout u?"

"tired from filling out paperwork. wana do something tmrw?"

"sure. anytime before 6."

"kay. I love you Weiss. goodnight"

Weiss looked at Jaune's text in disbelief. "He... He loves me..." She then began to cry again as she texted back, "I love you, Jaune."

After she stopped, she finished the bottle and threw it away.

"How could someone want to be with me? Like as husband and wife or whatever and shit? I guess that's the mystery of love." Weiss then walked to her bedroom and looked at a pack of cigarettes Blake had accidentally left there. She grabbed a cigarette, walked into the kitchen, grabbed a matchbox, and said, "Forgive me, God, for what I'm about to do. Or not, if you don't want to. I don't fucking care anymore." She then lit the cigarette and puffed it, coughing a few times before finally developing a tolerance for it. "No sir, I don't care."

After finishing the cigarette, she went to bed.

* * *

_August 18, 2020_

Ruby said to Yang as they ate breakfast, "I need to find a girl to date."

Yang looked at Ruby and said, "Huh?"

"I'm interested mainly in other girls right now. Do you know anyone who's a girl and likes other girls and is single, Yang?"

"Uhhhh... I know this one lesbian chick who's a cop that's single. She's 22 and has about a year on the job. She's dated a bi woman before, so you won't have to worry about any biphobia." Yang then wrote her number down on a napkin with a pen. "Here's her number." She then got up, dressed and ready to go. "Well, I gotta go to work, little sis. I'll see you in a few hours."

Ruby then waved goodbye and looked at the number Yang wrote down. Her name on the napkin was Gwenllian ap Meryk. "Hmmm... I could text her and see if she wants to do anything later this week..." After typing up a text, Ruby got dressed, brushed her teeth, and headed out.

Meanwhile, Jaune stopped by at Weiss's apartment. Weiss had gotten up and showered just before. When Jaune walked in, Weiss walked out of the shower, towel wrapped around her. They both froze and blushed at each other. Jaune said, "Uhhh... Hi, Weiss..."

"Same to you," Weiss awkwardly replied. "Jaune... Well, I'll go get dressed..."

Jaune replied, "Got it..." He thought to himself, _"Damn, the sexual tension is so thick, you could cut it with a knife."_


	10. Season 1: Part 10

Jaune and Weiss cleaned up Weiss's bedroom. As Jaune threw a used condom away, Weiss said, "You... We... That was actually pretty fun." Weiss smiled as she put her clothes on.

Jaune, still shirtless, replied, "Was that the first time you've had sex in a while?"

"Yeah. I haven't had it since the Beacon Academy days." Weiss then stretched. "How about you-... Oh..."

"No, it's fine. The last time I did it was the night before Pyrrha died. Listen, Weiss, I still miss her. Everyone does. But I've got to move on. Same goes for everyone. Pyrrha's dead, and nothing can change that. Besides, I don't think she would mind us."

Weiss thought to herself, _"Oh Jaune, you have noooo fucking idea..." _"You're right. Pyrrha wouldn't mind."

Pyrrha's ghost stood in the doorway. She said, "Yeah, I do mind, Weiss."

Jaune then stood up and said, "Well, I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be back." Weiss then waved at him.

Pyrrha's ghost said, "You just couldn't help yourself, huh?"

"Okay," Weiss said back. "First off, Jaune started it."

"You enticed him by walking out of the shower with only a towel on."

"Nice lack of logic you got there, Pyrrha. Listen, he's right, you know. We all do need to move on. That includes you. Don't you want to respect Jaune's wishes, or are you that possessive of him?"

Pyrrha's ghost stood there, staring at Weiss. She then disappeared.

"Well, looks like we have ourselves a coward."

Jaune then walked in. "Got any other plans for today?"

"Not much. I did my shopping yesterday before that fatal fire, and I also worked at my dad's company the day before." She then got up and went to the kitchen to eat some fruit. "Want a banana or something?"

"Sure, why not?" Jaune then grabbed a banana and peeled it. "As for me, I filled in for a teacher a Signal yesterday. I'm gonna be filling in for her for the next month or so on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays because she's pregnant."

Weiss then picked up a newspaper, the _Vale City Daily Sun, _an infamous tabloid in the city, with a front page story that read **"ATTACK OF THE PANS: WOMAN CALLS VOLLIES 'FAGGOTS' AND GETS K.O.'ED BY BLONDE "PANSEXUAL" FIREMAN AT FATAL APARTMENT FIRE." **She said, "They're ripping us apart in the tabloids, especially Yang. And it isn't just the fight. They're asking why we took so "long" to get there. We got there in 6 minutes, and we may have shaved a minute off of that if traffic wasn't so bad."

"The _Daily Sun_ has a history of doing that. They always sensationalise stories." Jaune then read the newspaper himself. "I wonder what other newspapers are saying."

"The less-sensational _Vale Times _reported it pretty neutrally. They've always had a favourable opinion of volunteer firefighters." Weiss then read another story. "Huh? What's this? "COP FOUND SHOT AND SLASHED IN APARTMENT?" This is interesting."

Jaune replied, "That doesn't sound good."

"Oh my God," Weiss said. "The killer left a note saying, "We're coming for you, pigs." Sounds like this guy's out to get cops."

* * *

At the dispatching office, things were pretty quiet. Blake was taking phone calls today, and so far, she had taken only 3 calls in 2 hours. Usually, she would have taken at least 7 or 8 by now.

As Blake watched a TV, the phones rang again. She quickly answered it and said, "Fire Department, Alarm Operator T875."

"My wife and kids are dead! Oh my God!" A man cried in the background. "No..."

"Sir, what's your address?" Blake looked visibly worried.

"556 34th Street, I'm in the Agricultural District. PD is en route now." Then, the man heard the door to the upstairs bedroom in his house open. He whispered, "Someone's in my house."

"Get out now. If you have a weapon, use it. I'll send the fire department for the ambulance right away." Blake then typed away at the CAD computer.

"I'm a cop. I'm Bernard Thrush."

"Wait, are you Russel Thrush's brother?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"I went to Beacon with him. Bernard, stay calm. Do you have your service weapon with you?"

"I have to have it with me at home, but it's upstairs." Then, he saw 2 men, armed with guns and machetes, charge at him. "OH GOD NO!" One of the men slashed him across the stomach and held him down, stabbing him in the legs. "AHHHH! OH GOD IT HURTS!"

One of the assailants said, "I bet you like that, pig! Now that you're down, get ready to squeal."

"No! NO! GOD NO! DON'T DO THIS TO ME!" Bernard then screamed at the top of his lungs as one of the assailants moaned.

Blake said, "Sir, what's wrong?!"

The moans got heavier, and the screams got louder. "HELP ME! NO, GOD, NO!" For the next 6 minutes, this went on and on and on and on.

Finally, the assailant stood up and said, "I bet you liked that, pig."

"Why?! Why did you do that?!"

Blake, by now, dropped the phone onto the desk and had lost it, crying her eyes out in front of everyone.

The second assailant then cocked his gun and shot Bernard in the shoulders.

Finally, to finish him off, the first assailant opened Bernard's mouth, placed him on the raised edge between the kitchen floor and the living room floor, and curb-stomped him, crushing his skull. He then picked Bernard up, slashed his throat, and shot him in the head, ending Bernard's life.

The second assailant picked up the phone and said, "We're coming for you next, Blake Belladonna. Even if you cut off one head, another one will sprout up. We will not stop until all traitors to our cause and all pig cops are dead." The phone line then disconnected.

Blake got up and went into a bathroom, continuing to cry. The supervising dispatcher said, "Someone get the recordings of that call and send it to the police now. I'll go comfort Blake."

Then, as the supervising dispatcher got up to attend to Blake, the radio scanner covering police channels picked up a panicked cop radioing, "Precinct 11 to Main Dispatch, urgent!" We have... Uhhh... We have open shooting!"

"Received," A Main Dispatch operator replied on the scanner. "What is the status of the shots fired?"

"We have officers down and 2 suspects with automatic rifles!"

"10-4, we'll get an ERT mobilised." Then, a tone beep was sent out. "Attention all Precincts, a Level One mobilisation has been ordered for Precinct 11's headquarters for an active shooting with 2 armed and dangerous assailants. ESU 4 is to be dispatched at this time."

A Fire Alarm Operator said, "Well this will be an interesting day..."

* * *

Later that day, at 6, when Ruby, Blake, and Yang all reported to the Fire Training Academy, they all talked about the cop killing spree that had occurred. Ruby said, "I can't believe they killed all of that guy's family. They did nothing wrong. It's so fucking sick."

Blake replied, "Try listening to that, though. Those assholes fucking _**raped **_him, his wife, and all 3 of his kids. Then those other 2 scumbags shot up Precinct 11 before they got shot themselves. They killed 8 cops and 4 dispatcher-secretaries at their Precinct Headquarters." Blake shook her head. "It's fucked up man." She did not mention the direct threat the first 2 assailants had made on her life on the phone to the rest of the team.

Yang said, "Who do you think did it?"

"It had to be the White Fang," Ruby replied. "They've been stepping up their anti-cop rhetoric lately."

Blake said, "No other way... It had to be them... I can't believe they're actually making a fucking comeback."

Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Weiss was watching TV when she heard a door be kicked in from Blake's apartment next door. Weiss got up and grabbed Myrtenaster. She thought, _"These burglars picked the wrong fucking apartment!"_

When she walked up to the door of Blake's empty apartment, she heard a man say, "Damn it, she's not here!"

Weiss then burst in and said, "Come at me then, assholes!"

"Oh look," an assailant said. "It's Weiss Schnee, an even better target!"

Weiss said, "Hmph. I don't think so." She then activated a glyph that teleported her behind one assailant. As she impaled that assailant with Myrtenaster, she said, "Kick rocks, dickhead."

The second assailant tried firing his gun at her, but it jammed. Weiss replied by firing a white dust cartridge, freezing the second assailant in his tracks. She then decapitated him, causing his head to fall to the ground and covering Weiss in blood. Several neighbours ran in and called 911. Weiss said, "I killed them. They tried to go after my best friend, but she wasn't home. When I confronted them, they were armed and dangerous." She then noticed a note left on the ground.

It read, "This is what traitors of the White Fang get."

"So this is who did this. Not surprised. Not surprised at all."

* * *

Weiss got home from a nearby police station at 9. She told officers that she would tell Blake herself after she was released from fire training at 10. When she got home, she talked to her dad about the incident. "Weiss, you did a very good thing defending your... Friend."

"Thank you," Weiss replied. She could tell her dad was finally accepting Blake fully. "I walked over when I heard them kick the door and they both said they wanted to kill me since I would be a bigger prize."

"You did the right thing." Hermann then sighed. "Damn, this city is getting crazier by the day. The guards I have at the family house a few blocks down are requesting permission to be armed now. I thought that once we imprisoned or hanged most of the White Fang's leadership, they'd cease to be an effective group. We were dead wrong. If anything, their new leaders are crazier."

"Say, I think Blake was working the phones today at Fire Alarm. I wonder if she got that off-duty cop's call."

"I hope not, for her sake. That must have been a really fucked-up call." Then, they both heard the fire siren roar up. "Well, we might as well go to the station."

"Indeed." Weiss and Hermann then got up and ran down the stairs to the outside as the ambulance responded. They then ran to the station, a relatively short distance.

When Hermann ran in, he looked at the teleprinter and said, "Bravo-response auto accident." He then ripped the paper out and took it with him as he and Weiss got their gear on. They were soon joined by Ren and another firefighter.

In 2 and a half minutes, Hermann jumped into the driver's seat and radioed, "Fire Alarm, Rescue 201's en route with a crew of 4."

"10-4, per the request of Car 5, respond non-emergency."

"10-4, non-emergency."

Weiss said, "Awww man..."

Hermann replied, "Sorry, Captain Kirkridge's orders."

* * *

_September 1, 2020_

It had been 2 weeks since the "Day of Rampage" the White Fang had ordered on police officers. The city held many tearfully heartbreaking funerals for the officers who here slain by the terrorists, and Delwyn IV himself made a statement saying, **_"They're all a bunch of jackasses. Regardless of whether or not the claims of police brutality against faunus are valid or not, which I believe in some cases is valid, there was no need for the wanton violence on that day, especially against officers and civilians, including children, who had nothing to do with any sort of wrongdoings certain officers may have committed. The VCPD has made many gains in reaching out to the community, punishing cops who commit wrongdoing, and hiring faunus in the past 30 years, and I will not let this terrorist attack deter that."_**

At 10, Ruby and Gwenllian, known as Gwen for short, returned from a date. They had been going out for a week and a half by now. "That was a fun movie, Ruby."

"I still am shocked by that twist ending though," Ruby replied. "I was ready to scream when it was revealed the guy's father was the killer. He was such a sympathetic character! I thought it was that guy's asshole of a grandma." Ruby and Gwen then walked into Ruby and Yang's apartment.

"Where's Yang?"

"Over at her boyfriend's house, probably screaming his name in bed." They both then laughed. "Anyways, me, her, and my friend Blake, as well as Yang's boyfriend, are gonna be taking a Basic Firefighter-CFR exam on the 5th. Once we pass that, we'll be fully certified interior firefighters."

"Cool. So, when do you wanna go out next?"

"Maybe the 4th. I got other stuff to do on the 2nd and 3rd."

"Okay. By the way, this may seem like a very personal question, but are you a..."

"A what? It's fine. Ask anything." Ruby was confused.

"Are you a virgin?"

"Ohhhh... Uhhhh... Yes... I've never done the do or anything to anyone's junk but my own ever. I'm kinda the opposite of Yang in regards to sex."

"I can tell. There's no shame in that. As for me, I'm not. I've had sex with 2 other girls in the past. Listen, if you want to do anything or ask any questions, Ruby, tell me."

Ruby smiled and replied, "Thanks, Gwen." They then fistbumped.

Gwen then gave Ruby a kiss on the cheek and said, "I gotta go. Goodbye."

* * *

**Vale City Police Department Operations (Brief Overview)**

All 7 districts in the city have 3 precincts, as well as an attached Emergency Service Unit, or ESU. The ESU responds to hostage crises, holdouts, technical rescues, auto extrications, and other special incidents. There are 3 vehicles in each ESU team, 1 per precinct.

Each precinct has a small, 4-man dispatching office that handles radio traffic for their precinct. There is also a channel where each precinct can contact the Main Dispatch Office, where 911 calls are first answered. If the fire department is needed for fire, rescue, or medical attention, the MDO will transfer the call to the Fire Alarm Office once the basic info of the call is noted. The MDO will then radio the precinct where the call took place in and tell them to dispatch a certain number of units units to the call.

The VCPD is unique because they use pager tones to notify each precinct of a call from the MDO, as well as to notify members of a district's ESU team. Each precinct has 2 channels: 1 for regular ops, and 1 as a backup in case the first channel gets tied up. Additionally, each district also has a special operations channel for ESU operations.

A Level One mobilisation will call all officers in the district of the incident as well as activate that district's ESU team. A Level Two mobilisation calls out 3 districts. A Level Three mobilisation calls out all on-duty officers. A Level Four mobilisation calls out all officers, on and off-duty.


	11. Season 1: Part 11

_September 2, 2020_

Blake was still working at the FAO, surprisingly. She had been given 2 weeks off to deal with the trauma of the call, but decided to start going back to work 1 week early.

Today, she was working as a District 2 dispatcher. This meant she would be able to hear numerous voices she was familiar with. At 8:16, just 16 minutes after beginning her shift, she got 2 simultaneous calls, both medicals on the CAD screen. She quickly sent out 3 tone beeps and radioed, "Fire Alarm to all units responding to Box 2167 and Box 2271, District 2, Channel 1 is operations, repeating, District 2, Channel 1 is operations." She then turned on the mixer for incoming units.

"Ambulance 204 to Fire Alarm, we're responding with 3 to Box 2167."

"10-4, responding at 8:16."

"Car 10 to Fire Alarm."

"Car 10."

"I'll be responding to Box 2167."

"10-4." There was then a short pause.

"Car 12 to Fire Alarm, I'm en route to Box 2271."

"10-4, just be advised, the caller states that the victim is now conscious, but still not alert."

"10-4."

"Ambulance 205 to Fire Alarm."

"Ambulance 205."

"We'll be responding with 4, we copy the info."

"10-4, Ambulance 205, responding at 8:18."

At 8:20, another call came in, this time for Friendship Hose Company 19 and Atlesian Fire Company 18 for a Charlie-response medical. She hit the tone beeps again and said, "Fire Alarm to all units responding to Box 2311, District 2, Channel 1 is operations."

"Car 10 is 10-84 at Box 2167."

"10-4."

"Car 12 is 10-84 with Ambulance 205 at Box 2271."

"10-4."

"Ambulance 204 is 10-84."

"10-4."

"Car 19 to Fire Alarm."

"Car 19." By now, Blake was getting tired and yawned.

"You can show me responding to Box 2311."

"10-4, Fire Alarm to Ambulance 208, are you en route?"

"10-4, we're responding, Fire Alarm."

"10-4." Then, there was a 45-second pause.

"Mini Pumper 209 to Fire Alarm."

"Mini 209."

"Show us responding to Box 2311 with a crew of 4."

"10-4, responding at 8:22."

"Car 19 to Fire Alarm, I'll be 10-84."

"10-4, Car 19."

* * *

At 5:30, Ruby and Gwen went out to a restaurant to eat. Gwen worked as a police officer on 1st shift, from 12 to 8 in the morning, from Monday through Friday, and then would bid for 12-hour weekend shifts. As they ate their meal, Ruby said, "So can I let you in on a secret?"

"What is it?" Gwen looked interested.

"I personally know the king."

"You know Delwyn IV? How?!"

"Well, one night, my big sister Yang took me out to Vale's 'gaybourhood' and we ran into Delwyn doing a pub crawl in the area, so we joined him. By the way, he is not gay, or bi, or whatever. He frequents the area because apparently, us LGBT people are great bar owners."

Gwen laughed and replied, "I can't argue with that. One of my exes worked as a bartender. She was very skilled at her job."

"I even have Delwyn's cell phone number. Here's a picture of me and Yang with him." She then showed Gwen the picture on her phone. "He goes out in civilian clothing to escape some of the pressures of running a country."

"What if someone wants to kill him?"

"He's got that covered. He carries a concealed gun with him and a bunch of permits. He's a very skilled shot. He invited me and Yang to a target range at the castle. Wanna come? It's on Friday at 7."

"Sure. I could improve my accuracy skills, given my job as a cop."

* * *

After the meal, Ruby went over to see Gwen's apartment, located in District 1 of the city. When she opened the door, Gwen said, "It's a bit messy, but whatever."

As Ruby looked around, Gwen reached into a locked cabinet and pulled out a pistol, saying, "This is my service weapon. Per VCPD rules, I have to take it home with me because a lot of people are out to get cops. It's a 6-shot .30 calibre revolver. Since I'm only a regular patrol officer, I can't carry the .45 calibre 7-shot pistols like the sergeant, lieutenants, captains, and chiefs."

"Cool," Ruby replied. "I have a weapon of my own." She then pulled Crescent Rose, in its compact form, out of her backpack. "It's called Crescent Rose. It's a scythe and a sniper rifle. I use it for hunting grimm and self-defence. According to Beacon Academy's headmaster, Ozpin, this is the most dangerous weapon ever designed for hunting, and the most effective." She then displayed its sniper mode, followed by its scythe mode, before turning it off and putting it back.

"Amazing! How old were you when you made that?!"

"14. I was in Signal Academy at the time. I had some help from my uncle, Qrow."

"Oh my God..." Gwen then put her gun away. "So, this may be a ball out of left field, but what turns you on?"

Ruby blushed. "Well... Guys... And girls... Naked, I guess?"

"Well no shit, Sherlock. I mean like acts, fetishes, body types, personality, and whatever."

"Ohhhh... Hmm..." Ruby thought to herself.

"Look, if you aren't comfortable, just tell me, and I'll stop."

"I'm fine. Let's see... Uhhh..."

"You drew a blank, didn't you?"

"I'm trying to figure this out on the fly, Gwen. Be patient. Alright... Well, I'll just write it down. It doesn't feel right to have it come out of my mouth, no pun intended." Ruby then grabbed a piece of paper and a pen.

After writing down a few things, Gwen looked at it and blushed. "Well then... Uhhh... Would you ever... Would you ever consider doing any of this with me?" Gwen then covered her mouth in embarrassment.

Ruby said, "I'd have to think about it... Well... Uhhh... I guess a few things..."

"Which ones?"

Ruby, now as bright red as an apple, pointed them out on the paper. "These."

"So not all the way, but close? Okay..."

* * *

At 8:41, Ruby returned to her and Yang's apartment. Yang looked at her and said, "Where the hell were you? You were supposed to be back here at 6:30."

"Yang... Me and Gwen did a few things..." Ruby blushed again.

"You... What?" Yang was confused.

Then, Ruby took a deep breath and said, "Me and Gwen were supposed to just do oral, but we went all the way instead!" She then covered her mouth in embarrassment.

Yang was stunned. "You... Had sex with Gwenllian?"

Ruby nodded.

"Did you agree to it?"

Ruby nodded again.

"Was it fun?"

Ruby hesitated, then nodded yes.

"Then that's all that matters. Welcome to the world of non-virgins, Ruby, population me, Weiss, Blake, and a bunch of other people." Yang then smiled. "Was she gentle with you?"

"Well, I kinda told her to be rough once we started getting way into it."

"Atta girl." Yang then laughed, followed by Ruby uncomfortably laughing. "Did you set up another time for a date?"

"That we did. I plan on asking her to do it again with me afterwards."

"Alright then. Have fun, but be careful and safe. Don't catch anything, got it?"

"Got it." Ruby then poured herself some water. "So, what's new with you?"

"I've been studying this." She then showed Ruby a book called "Firefighter Tactics." "I'm doing this so I can prepare for the test on the 5th. I also got a book called "The Basics Of Rescue Operations" from the Vigilant's library. I still can't believe our fire company can afford its own library for members."

* * *

_September 3, 2020_

At 5, Blake and Sun went out to watch a play at a nearby theatre called the Beverly Playhouse. They came home to Blake's apartment at 9.

"Well that was a fun little production," Blake said. "So, Sun when do you ship out to assist the expansion project?"

"I ship out on September 6 and I'll be back on September 18," Sun replied. "Mistral is supplying 500 hunters and 5,000 soldiers per an agreement with Vale."

"Be careful. It was hell out there."

"Anyways, it appears that events are finally slowing down after that rough August and July. First we had that huge fire, the hunting thing, and then the cop-killings."

Blake remained silent.

"Anything wrong?"

She then sighed and said, "It's nothing. I gotta go study for the fire exam on the 5th." She then gave Sun a quick kiss. "Goodnight."

Sun blushed and replied, "Bye, Blake." He then left the apartment.

Blake pulled out a book from Vigilant's library and read it from cover to cover in a little over an hour and a half. When she finished at 10:37, she fell right to sleep, tired out from the day.

* * *

_September 4, 2020_

Ruby and Gwen took the subway over to the Royal Castle at 7 PM. When they arrived at the gates, Ruby called Delwyn IV by phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Ruby. We're here with the guns, Delwyn."

"Okay then. I'll radio the guards at the gates to buzz you in."

After a 1 and a half minute pause, the guards opened a door next to the gates. One of them said, "Come on in."

As Ruby and Gwen, both carrying their weapons, were led to the castle by the guards, they looked at the beautifully-crafted gardens and fountains. Ruby asked, "How long does it usually take you guys to get to the king's house, or palace I should say?"

"Well, the Royal Castle of Vale is about 0.35 square miles in size in regards to the grounds," a guard replied. "It takes a while, especially with the other buildings and gates. This place is the most beautiful area in the city, but it's also the most fortified."

The other guard said, "Some ex-guard released a book about the inner workings of this place back a few years ago. He had to release it under a false name then because there was some stuff in there that was originally secret, such as the existence of surface-to-air missiles in the complex, as well as a war command centre underground. So anyways, why did the king invite you 2 here? We know he goes out on some weekends in plainclothes. Did he meet up with you 2?"

"He met me and my sister Yang," Ruby replied. "Gwen here is my girlfriend and a cop. Me and my sister are in the Hunting Corps."

"Nice. Say, were you sent out to the woods for that expansion mission?"

"I was. It was a grueling mission, and I'm gonna have to repeat it sometime in October or November. What branch are you guys in?"

"Obviously, we're in the Guardsmen Corps. I'm a Sergeant. This man next to me is a Captain. We're one of 1,250 guards stationed at the Royal Castle."

After a few more minutes of walking and touring, Delwyn IV met them at the steps to the King's residence. Ruby, Gwen, and the 2 guards saluted him. Delwyn then said, "At ease. So, what's new with you, Ruby?"

"Me and Gwen have been doing well. I gotta take the BF-CFR test tomorrow. What's new with you?"

"I'm meeting the Chancellor of Vacuo in 2 days, so there's that. I also have to attend a Governing Council's meeting tomorrow. I'm a busy man." The 3 of them all laughed.

"Your majesty," Gwen said. "My name is Gwenllian. I am Ruby's girlfriend. It's an honour to meet you."

"Same to you as well. I hear you're a cop."

"I am indeed. I'm fairly new to the force. My dad was a cop for 18 years until he was struck and killed on a highway when I was 15. So, where's the shooting gallery?"

"Right this way!" Delwyn then led the girls into the inside of the residence.

After walking down several grand and magnificent hallways, they went to an elevator.

"This leads to the 3 sub-levels of the basement. The residence would have more, but the castle grounds are only 154 feet above sea level. Down there are some offices, meeting rooms, storage, and the shooting gallery." The 3 of them then walked into the elevator. Delwyn pressed a button to go to the 1st basement sub-level.

After walking more, the 3 checked in and arrived at the shooting range. Ruby said, "This place is huge!"

"Indeed. The shooting gallery is 25 feet tall. The furthest targets are 3000 feet away, and the closest targets are 50 feet away. There are a total of 20 targets. In comparison, the grounds themselves are 4000 feet long north-south and 3000 feet long east west. Obviously, the shooting gallery is north-south. It's designed to allow users to fire not only guns, but also rocket launchers, given the large space behind us to allow for the backblast to dissipate. Remember, don't stand behind anyone firing an explosive weapon." All 3 of them then put ear protectors on.

"Got it." Ruby then deployed Crimson Rose into its sniper mode and aimed at the 3000-foot target.

"You're daring," Gwen said.

Then, Ruby fired. The shot missed the target but only a few feet. "Damn it!"

Delwyn said, "I'm gonna fire an incendiary rocket launcher. This particular model has 4 reloadable tubes. Remember, do NOT stand behind me for this one."

Ruby and Gwen moved to the far right side of Delwyn as he put the sights up, aimed at the 3000-foot target, turned the safety off, and fired an incendiary round. The small target post was hit, and it burned intensely. The smoke was channeled into a vent nearby. A fire suppression system then put the fire out with CO2.

Ruby said, "Amazing!"

Delwyn said, "Wanna try? As long as you're under my watch, it'll be fine."

Ruby said, "Yes!" She then grabbed the launcher from Delwyn's hands as he moved away, got in the correct position, aimed, and fired.

Gwen said, "Awesome!"

* * *

_September 5, 2020_

The day of the big test had arrived. All 174 volunteer firefighters that had taken the course congregated outside of a large gymnasium in the training academy complex. Most were under the age of 20, and many were even under 18.

Yang said to Ruby, "I can't believe how young some of the guys and gals here are. One kid I talked to said she had just turned 14 2 weeks before the class began. Hey Weiss, how old were you when you took this?"

Weiss replied, "14. I was in Vigilant for 2 years before then. I still couldn't go into buildings at calls until I was 16. Actually, on my 16th birthday, I made my first interior attack at a 1-alarm apartment fire. It was right at the end of my party, too. I remember coming home 4 hours later at 1 in the morning the next day and barely falling asleep because I was so excited." She was here to hang out before and after the test finished up.

Blake said, "I hope all our studying paid off."

George then walked over and said, "Hello, girls. And hello, Yang." They both smiled and kissed.

Yang said, "Are you ready for the test?"

"Of course," George replied. "I studied my ass off for the past week, and one of the guys at my company got his hands on an extra copy of the previous BF-CFR test. I took it as practise. He said that the test is different every year, but they do recycle some key questions and reword them."

Another Goodwill firefighter then approached George and said, "Hey George, you gotta read this story in the VCVFA's newspaper."

"What does the _Volunteer Weekly _have to print this time?" George then read the front page story. "Apparently, a bunch of housing developments in District 3 are pissed that the volunteer fire companies that are there already aren't being fast enough, so they want to form their own companies. There's also talk of forming 2 new companies in the new developments just outside of Beacon Academy."

"So they do," Weiss said. "What will they name them?"

"The 2 new Beacon companies will be called North and South Beacon Fire, respectively. The developments in District 3 want to name their companies after their development's names. The VCPFA is angry at these proposals because they reached an agreement with us to not form any new volunteer companies for 25 years after the 1970s."

"How creative," Weiss replied sarcastically. "And boo fucking hoo if the VCPFA doesn't want new companies. The moratorium is up, and if the citizens in one area feel that their needs aren't being met by existing companies, they have the right to form their own volunteer stations. How do the existing District 3 companies feel?"

"They're all neutral on the issue. On one hand, they like to see the sense of volunteerism spread. On the other, a lot of guys who are proposing these new companies are already paid and/or volunteer firefighters, so they may lose a few guys to the new companies. On another, the guys in District 3 could use all the help they can get with mutual aid and water supply. Almost 65% of the district has no hydrants whatsoever, and a lot of developers are not putting them in to save time."

Blake then said, "Wait up, I think they're calling us in now."

Weiss said, "See ya guys after the test. Good luck to all of you. Who knows? Maybe we'll get a fire tonight afterwards and we can all go do interior ops together."


	12. Season 1: Part 12

Ruby, Yang, Blake, and George walked out of the test area with smiles on their faces. Weiss walked over and asked, "How did you guys do?"

"We all passed," Ruby replied. "I got 100%, Yang got 91%, Blake got 92% and George got 87%."

"Amazing! Ruby, you got 100%?! I only got 90% when I took my test some 8 years ago." Weiss then dialed her father on her cellphone to tell him. "Once my dad notifies my uncle and Captain Kirkridge, you, Blake, and Yang will get cleared to do interior operations."

"That reminds me," George said. "I gotta call my captain and tell him about me." He then looked at Yang. "I can't believe it! We're interior firefighters!"

Yang said, "Me neither!" She then kissed George. "Wanna 'celebrate' later tonight?"

George replied in a seducing voice, "Of course." Yang giggled.

Ruby, Weiss, and Blake all smiled and rolled their eyes. Weiss said, "There they go again."

Ruby then got a call from Gwen. "Hello?"

"Hey Ruby. How did the test go?"

"We all passed. As of today, we are interior firefighters."

"Awesome! Be careful out there. By the way, your friend Delwyn's on TV right now, overseeing a Ruling Council meeting."

"What are they arguing about now?"

"Right now, it's just boring but important budget stuff."

"I like how you nonchalantly just described the very thing that prevents our country from going bankrupt as boring but important. It's funny." Ruby then laughed.

* * *

At 7:04, Blake and Sun were watching TV in Blake's apartment. There had been a call for an odor of gas in a building a few hours earlier at 3, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

"Training has been fun," Sun said. "The Valeanian instructors can be very tough, though."

"That they are," Blake replied. "I remember when in my final year at Beacon how we began having more military-esque classes. That was the first time I ever heard an instructor actually swear in class. It was so weird going from teachers and professors and doctors and whatnot teaching us like a regular college or university class to instructors that would drop f-bombs and order us to yell back a reply to their commands. Those classes were also very draining physically. I remember how one day, the 35-person class I was in had to haul huge logs across the campus on our shoulders for 45 minutes straight."

"Damn. I went through the same thing when I went back to Mistral. I remember how my team decided to take the 2-year-long "Special Forces" elective class from our 3rd year to our 4th year. It was brutal. To even get in the class, we had to run 2 miles, swim 750 yards, do 50 push-ups, do 75 sit-ups, and do 10 pull-ups. It was a miracle we all made it. We also had to learn how to do underwater demolition, parachuting from aircraft, speak foreign languages, shoot targets over a mile away, and a bunch of other stuff."

"Wow. I remember hearing about the Special Forces elective in Beacon, but my whole team never took it. Ruby took it and passed. She described it as one of the most rewarding but also challenging classes at Beacon. She decided not to go into the Hunting Corps's Special Hunting Service because she didn't want to leave us, though with the training she has, she can still enter it at any time if she changes her mind. The reason why she took it was because her mom, Summer, was in the SHS. She went missing on a mission and was never found."

"Oh yeah. I heard about that. With the whole expanding the city mission thing, do you think they could find her body?"

"Maybe. She was in the exclusion zone when she went missing." Blake then changed the channel. "I can't fucking stand these fake reality TV shows." The show on the next channel was called "Code 99." "Code 99? That show about firefighters in Vale? I didn't know it aired new episodes now."

"I heard the show pulled in good ratings for its first 2 episodes. This must be the third."

"It did. Surprisingly, the show is accurate despite being fictional. It takes place in a fire company in District 5. The real company that was featured in the show endorsed it. The main character is a stage actor who joins Suedia Fire Company 47 at the recommendations of a playwright who's an 27-year veteran of the company. He's 19 when he joins, and he has to maintain both his firefighting skills and his skills on the stage, as well as play and musical scheduling, the struggle to make it in entertainment, and more."

"Interesting. I wonder if there are actors, playwrights, stage crewmembers, and singers that are firefighters in real life?"

"There are. District 5 is the centre of the theatre, music, and film industries of Vale. Many famous entertainers are or were volunteer firefighters. The guy who made this show is a firefighter himself for Ivrea Rescue and Recovery, though he is less active than he used to be. He lives somewhere else in the city now, but he still responds to calls when he does duty shifts. I remember that the _Volunteer Weekly _interviewed him. He says he does about 60-72 hours of staffing per month and that he joined when he was 20 when he moved to the area to begin a career in entertainment."

"Wow. Volunteers really do come from all walks of life. I mean, look at Weiss and her family. Many of them are rich corporate executives, and they still do hands-on dirty work for free."

"I know. I used to have little respect for her family, but after working fires with her dad and uncle, I respect them a lot more now. They both say their views on faunus have softened because of me, and that a lot of the issues Schnee Dust Corporation had with bad labour practises was the result of Weiss's grandfather, who was really racist and known for paying workers minimum wage when they should have been paid more due to dangerous working conditions."

"Is her grandpa still alive?"

"No. He died when Weiss was 14. He was a volunteer at Vigilant too. He had cancer and died when he was 68. It sucks, because a year later, they began having all sorts of breakthroughs in treating cancer. Remember? The miracle year of 2013?"

"Oh yeah. They came out with the non-small cell lung cancer vaccine, the throat and mouth cancer vaccines, and a bunch of other stuff that year. I heard tobacco, cocaine, and marijuana companies threw billions into cancer research, and still do, because they didn't want their customers dying in droves. It's kinda sick, but still, vaccines for cancers."

"It's about as both messed up and a good thing as a porn site donating to breast cancer and testicular cancer research. Speaking of tobacco..." Blake then grabbed a tobacco cigarette and lit up. "I need to stop doing this. Do you smoke anything?"

"No," Sun replied. "Marijuana and Cocaine are illegal in Mistral. Tobacco is highly regulated, and there are now calls to ban that too. It's stupid, since fighting drugs with jail time never works."

"Try telling Atlas that," Blake replied. "They still shoot drug traffickers there. They're pretty much a military junta in all but name, and that dumbass Alexander Andersen wants to do the same here. He hates volunteers with a passion and wants the military to run all emergency services."

"Fuck him." Sun and Blake then heard her pager beep. It was 7:11.

"Is it another EMS call?" Blake then walked up as she heard the tones of 3 other companies plus the assistant district chief of District 2 go out, indicating a Box Alarm. "Gotta run!" She then quickly grabbed her pager, kissed Sun, and ran out the door.

When she got to the station about a minute and a half later, the ambulance had already left, and the truck was filling up fast. She ran to her gear, put on and pulled up her boots, grabbed her coat and helmet, and ran to the truck to grab the 10th and last seat. As the truck pulled forward, she and another firefighter stood up to put their coats and helmets on. Blake then strapped into an SCBA built into the seat.

Alfred Schnee, "By the way, Belladonna, Xiao Long, and Rose are all interior firefighters now, so take them in ASAP so they can get experience."

Ruby shouted, "Alright!"

Blake said, "Hey Ruby, hey Weiss. Where's Yang?"

"On her way from her boyfriend's house," Weiss replied. "She'll make the rescue, don't worry."

Ruby then got a call on her phone from Yang. "Hey Yang."

"Hey Ruby," Yang said as she drove on her motorcycle to the station. "I was right in the middle of riding George when the call came in. Do you think I'll make the rescue?"

"TMI, Yang. And yes, Weiss says you'll make the rescue."

"Alright! I'll see ya at the fire."

"Bye, Yang." Ruby then hung up. "She was in the middle of having sex with her boyfriend when the call came in."

Weiss laughed and said, "Of course."

At 7:17, Truck 201 arrived, as the fire was in Vigilant's first due. The building involved was a 5-storey tenement, with a fire in a 2nd floor apartment.

The crew jumped out of the truck, with Blake, Ruby, Weiss, Ren, and 2 other firefighters congregating near Alfred and suiting up. Alfred said, "Alright, who here is RIT certified?"

1 firefighter raised his hand. "Alright, I'll take you, one of the paid guys from Vigilant, and 3 others once more units show up and we'll assemble a Rapid Intervention Team*. The rest of you will grab 2 hand lines from the truck and advance inside. Weiss, Rose, you 2 will take the first line. Belladonna, Fairfax, you take the second line."

Once the lines were stretched and filled with water, Ruby and Weiss moved in, closely followed by Blake and a firefighter named John Fairfax. As they climbed up the stairs to the second floor, Ruby said, "I can feel the temperature rising greatly."

"No shit," Weiss replied. "It's a fire, what did you expect?"

Then, they crawled into the hallway of the second floor. After crawling past several apartments, Weiss said, "I can faintly make out a red glow. We're close to the fire." Weiss then sprayed the area down with water, damping the fire down but also creating more thick smoke. Weiss then yelled, "Blake, John, go up to the third floor and search the area for trapped civilians!"

"Got it," John replied. He was a 10 year veteran of Vigilant, having joined when he was 16. "Let's go, Belladonna." As they climbed to the third floor, they found one victim unconscious from the smoke in the hallway.

Blake radioed, "Vigilant Interior to Vigilant Command."

"Go ahead."

"Get me 2 more firefighters in here, we got one victim down on the third floor hallway."

"10-4. We'll send 2 more in."

As it turned out, the 2 who were sent in were Yang and George. They quickly ran inside with their SCBAs on and crawled up to the third floor to grab the victim. As they climbed the stairs, Yang said, "I can't believe we got action on the very day we passed BFCFR."

"Tell me about it," George replied. They then met up with Blake and John.

"Here you go," Blake said as she handed the victim, a 62-year-old male, to Yang and George. They quickly picked him up and ran down the stairs. As they got to the first floor, Yang ripped her mask off and gave it to the unconscious man.

Once they were outside, they rushed the man to 3 firefighters, who began performing CPR on the victim. After a few compressions, he coughed up soot and began to wake up. Yang smiled and said, "We did it."

Then, they put their helmets and masks back on and went back inside with 4 other firefighters. Incident Command ordered them in to help with search and rescue as well as overhaul once the main body of fire was knocked down. Meanwhile, Truck 201 raised its ladder to the 2nd floor in case anyone needed to escape while Truck 203 raised its Aerialscope tower to the 3rd floor to allow 3 firefighters to walk in.

As all this happened, Weiss and Ruby continued to knock down the fire. "You're doing good Ruby," Weiss said. "Keep supporting me."

"Can we switch?"

"Okay then. Come in front of me and I'll back you up." They then switched places. "You know what to do."

"Indeed." Ruby then sprayed a jet of water from the hose line. "Woah!"

"I know. It's powerful, isn't it?"

Within a few minutes, the main body of fire was knocked down. Yang and George were poking holes in the ceiling of the first floor to let out smoke with from the second with pike poles when they were ordered out of the building to switch out with 2 other firefighters. As they walked outside, they held each other's hands before separating to take their SCBAs off. Right after they took their masks off, Yang and George kissed. "That was some good work," Yang said.

"Same to you," George replied. "When we're done here, let's finish what we started back at my place."

"Of course."

The aide to the Assistant District 2 Chief said to himself, "Lovebirds..."

"Tell me about it," the chief replied.

* * *

**A Rapid Intervention Team, as per the VCFD's standard operating procedures, will consist of 5 selected firefighters plus 1 officer who will stand by at a fire scene and only be called on to rescue trapped firefighters. For each alarm transmitted, another RIT team will be assembled. All paid firefighters are RIT certified, as are all volunteer officers and volunteer firefighters who choose to receive RIT training. You must have a minimum of Basic Firefighter-CFR to undergo 3-month RIT training.**


	13. Season 1: Part 13

_**September 12, 2020**_

"Aaaaaand the plot thickens," Weiss said to herself as she read the Volunteer Weekly while working at a front desk at the Valeanian HQ for the SDC. "They want to bring back the Fire Patrol."

Another worker said, "What's that?"

"The Vale City Fire Patrol was disbanded in 2015 because the paid firemen wanted to do salvage, and the cheapskates in the city government agreed. The Fire Patrol had 14 stations, 2 per district, all staffed with paid fire patrolmen, that would respond alongside us to all Box Alarms, water pumpouts, auto extrications, special hazards incidents like hazmat and technical rescue, and whenever else they were requested. Additionally, if the fire company that normally covered the area their station was in was out of service, they would start rolling as a regular fire company to things like EMS calls, accidents, and fires."

"Cool. I never really knew we had that. What did they do at emergencies?"

"Their main job was to protect property from the usual stuff: Smoke, fire, and water damage. They would often spread cover sheets over goods to protect them from the water from our hose lines, as well as smoke. They'd also operate elevators, cover up broken windows, and pump out water. Of course, being emergency personnel, they also saved many, many lives, including those of firefighters, sometimes at the cost of their own. This article in the Volunteer Weekly says that a petition to get the Vale City Board of Fire Underwriters to reform them has reached over 10,000 signatures."

"Sign me up then too. I don't want my electronics getting destroyed. They should have never done away with them."

"That's what I said," Weiss replied. She then turned to a visitor at the front desk. "Hello, ma'am, do you have any appointments?"

"Yes," she replied. "I have one on Floor 17 in Room 4."

"Okay then, I'll call them up and tell them you're ready." After calling the room, she said, "They're all ready for you, ma'am."

"Thank you." The woman then walked away.

Weiss then turned to the other worker and continued her earlier conversation, saying, "First a bunch of people want to form some new volunteer companies, and now the old patrolmen want to bring back the fire patrol. This will be an interesting year for the fire service, and it seems like the VCPFA are gonna be on the wrong side of history."

* * *

Later at 6:25, while the ambulance was out on a medical call, Weiss stopped by at the station with Jaune. There, they saw Nora and Ren as well. Jaune said, shaking Ren and Nora's hands, "It's nice to see you two lovebirds again."

"You too," Nora replied. "Anyways, I'm only about 2 months away from having a girl. We're in the final stretch, and I can't wait."

Ren said, "Home life for us has been surprisingly calm, despite the pregnancy. We've pretty much bought all the supplies necessary for having a child at this point."

"Good job, you two." Weiss then noticed Pyrrha's ghost staring at her again, but this time, there were 2 other ghosts next to her too. One was a young faunus girl, probably a victim of the NAAF fire, and the other was Cadel Cogan, a cop and a Vigilant firefighter who was shot and killed while patrolling the streets in 2013.

Pyrrha said, "You're probably wondering why I brought this girl and Cadel here."

Weiss nodded while Jaune, Nora, and Ren talked amongst themselves.

"Hello Weiss," Cadel said. "It's been a long time since 2013. How's Hermann?" Cadel and Weiss's dad never really got along when it came to firehouse politics, and as such Weiss never had a favourable opinion of him.

Weiss simply gave him a dirty look before turning to Team JNR and saying, "I gotta run upstairs for a sec to check on something." She then calmly walked to the second floor, walked into the kitchen, and closed the door behind her. Then, she looked behind her and jumped, yelling, "Holy shit!"

There was the little faunus girl's ghost, covered in burns and soot. She said, "Hello, miss firefighter. Thank you for saving my brother." She then disappeared.

"What the everloving fuck is going on with my head?" Weiss then grabbed a bottle of water, drank all of it, and walked back downstairs.

When she got there, her sister had also shown up. "Hey there, Weiss."

"Oh hi, Winter. What are you doing here?"

"I'm coming in to do a 6-hour duty shift from 7 to 1. How about you?"

"Not much. Just showing Jaune here around the firehouse."

"So, you got a boyfriend?"

Weiss suddenly blushed and said, "Yeah, so? You brought them over here too."

"Yeah, yeah, and I remember how you always poked fun at me for doing it." Winter laughed.

Ren said, "How's the husband and kids doing, Winter?"

"Going good. My hubby's off of work today, so he'll be watching the kids while I work here for 6 hours." She then got a text on her phone. "By the way, I just got the new Scroll-Phone 8S. It's amazing."

Jaune said, "You still use Scroll-OS devices? Why not Tome?"

Ren rolled his eyes and said, "Here we go again with the Scroll-OS versus TomeCorp-OS thing..."

Then, the speakers in the station said, "Standby Vigilant Fire 5 for a second call and Enterprise Steamer 10 for a Delta-response medical, Box 234." Then, the pager tones dropped. As the dispatcher read out the information, Ren took the newly-printed rip-and-go sheet detailing the call. He, Winter, Weiss, and another firefighter doing paperwork in an office in the building ran to Rescue 201.

Jaune said, "Do you want your gear?"

"Sure! Grab my gear, Ren's gear, Winter's gear, and Johnson's gear!"

Jaune then ran to Weiss and Winter's gear racks. He grabbed their boots, their coats, and Weiss's helmet. He then put Winter's helmet on his head and ran the gear over to the rescue, where Weiss grabbed it. Nora ran over Ren's coat and helmet. Jaune ran back to grab Ren's boots and the other firefighter's gear. "Why do you need all this for a medical?"

"In case we get a fire call so we don't have to return to the station to pick up our bunker gear," Ren replied. Once all the gear was on the truck, Rescue 201 pulled out and blared its lights and sirens.

At 6:41, Rescue 201 arrived to a restaurant, the scene of the medical, 3 minutes after the call came in. There, a victim was having difficulty breathing and chest pains. Ren, being the only non-EMT of the crew, stood back and grabbed gear as Winter, a paramedic, Weiss, an EMT-Basic, and the other firefighter, also an EMT-Basic, got to work. The patient sat in a waiting area.

Weiss said, "Alright, ma'am, have you felt this before?"

"I... I have a history... Of heart issues," the woman said while still out of breath.

Winter said after checking the patient's heartbeat, "She has sinus tachycardia. Her heart rate is 158."

The other firefighter said, "She has a respiratory rate of 44 and a blood pressure rate of 150/60. She's not looking too good."

Weiss grabbed an oxygen mask from the medical toolkit and put it around the patient. She then motioned for Ren to grab a second medical toolkit from the truck. "We need the toolkit that says "IV, Nebuliser, and Drugs" on it!"

Ren then ran back to the patient with the second toolkit. Winter opened it and grabbed a nebuliser. Weiss began administering oxygen as Winter got the nebuliser ready for action. She then began administering albuterol through the device. "This should do the trick."

As the drug was administered, the patient said, "I also... I also smoke one pack of tobacco... Cigarettes a day..."

Weiss then wrote down the patient's information on a notepad. As she did, Ambulance 204 arrived. She said to Ren, "Pass these notes on to the Steamer 10 guys!" Ren ran over and grabbed the notes from Weiss before running to the firefighters on Ambulance 204 and giving the notes to them.

They then entered the restaurant with a stretcher. Winter handed the nebuliser to an Enterprise firefighter as Weiss, the other firefighter, and Ren lifted the patient onto the stretcher. Winter said to Weiss, "I'll go on the ambulance with these guys. You, Lie, and Johnson take Rescue 201 to the hospital lights and sirens to Guardian Hospital."

* * *

At 7:11, Rescue 201 left the hospital. By then, Ambulance 201 was in quarters. Ren said as the truck drove along the busy city streets at 7:20, "I need to start my Intermediate Firefighter-EMT in January 2021."

"You should," Winter replied as she drove. "Then you can join in the fun with us."

The other firefighter, a man named Julius Johnson, said, "Emphasis on the word fun." The rest of the crew laughed.

Weiss said, "That reminds me. I gotta start preparing for the Advanced Firefighter-Paramedic course in January as well." She then got a call from Blake. "Hello?"

"Hello there," Blake said at her apartment. "I need to ask you a question. It's about Sun."

"Sure, lay it on me."

"Funny you should say 'lay.' I'm debating on whether or not to 'make a move' on him."

"You're asking me whether or not you should bang Sun, aren't you?" Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Yeah... Don't say anything about it, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I won't. Anyways, I'm not gonna tell you to sleep with anyone. If you want to, do it. Just do it."

"I guess I want to. I don't know for sure. Sun's hot, but we've never really confessed any sort of romantic feelings for each other."

"Blake, seriously? You don't need to confess. All you need is a will to fuck and, obviously, consent from the other person or people you want to fuck."

Then, Winter said, "Hey Weiss, who are you talking to?"

"A friend of mine who can't decide whether or not to have sex." Weiss then turned back to her phone. "Do the thing. Fuck him until his legs are shaking."

Blake then sighed. "Fine, fine, fine, I'll do it. See ya later." She then hung up and walked over to Sun, who was in her room checking it out.

Sun said, "Hey there, Blake. Who were you talking to?"

Blake then took her black vest, her bow, and her scarf collar off. As she began taking her leggings off, she said, "Do you like what you see?"

Sun, now getting the message, said, "Sure... I like it..." He began sweating profusely and his tail began to twitch.

Blake then held his head and kissed him on the lips. After they split, Blake seductively said, "Want to see more?"

"Go ahead," Sun anxiously replied. "Do it."

Blake then stripped down to her underwear, revealing her bra and panties. "Do you want to go further, Sun?"

Sun nodded. Blake replied by laying him down on her bed and kissing him again. "Wait, we're having-?"

"Yes. Sun, we are going to have sex. Did it really take you that long?"

Sun laughed. "I knew that you were trying to do that, but I wanted confirmation. Now that I do, let's go." They then kissed again.

Blake then said, "Hold up. I gotta close the door and close the shades. I assume you have a condom with you." She then got up.

"Uhhhh... No..." Sun laughed nervously.

Blake rolled her eyes and said, "That's why I kept a few here. I stole them from Yang since she keeps a bunch in her and Ruby's apartment if they ever run into the same problem with any guys." After closing the door and the blinds, Blake rummaged through her drawer and pulled out a condom. "There we go. Now, let's get to it. We're wasting time."

* * *

At 7:45, Weiss returned to her apartment. As she turned the key to open her apartment door, she thought to herself, _"I wonder if Blake took my advice. I have keys to her place... Nah, you're not that cruel, Weiss. Well... Maybe they finished or didn't do it. If I do it quietly enough, I could go in without being detected." _Weiss then put a key into Blake's lock.

She then saw Ruby and her girlfriend Gwen walk down the hallway. Ruby said, "Hi there, Weiss."

_"Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit..."_ "Uhhh... Hi, Ruby... And Ruby's GF..."

Gwen said, "So you're the heiress to the SDC. Huh..."

"Yeah... I am..."

"So, what were you gonna do with Blake?"

"Uhhh... I was just... I was just... Okay, fine. I was going in to Blake's apartment to see if she and Sun were getting it on."

"Weiss, what the fuck..." Ruby was confused as hell. Gwen was equally confused as well.

"Blake called me while I was at the hospital asking me if she should bang Sun. I told her she should. I wanna see if she took my advice." Weiss was sweating out of anxiety over Ruby and Gwen's reaction.

Suddenly, Blake opened the door and said, "Hey guys, what's going on out here?" She was standing next to Sun wearing nothing but a towel.

Gwen said, "So that's the faunus friend you have, right? Blake is her name or something?"

"Yeah," Ruby replied. "I don't think I introduced my girlfriend to all of you. Weiss, Blake, Sun, this is Gwen, my girlfriend and a girl in blue, AKA a cop."

Blake said, "Nice to meet you. Pardon my relative lack of clothing." She then turned to Weiss and smiled. "I took your advice. It was great."

Weiss said, "I told you so."

Ruby, confused, said, "Wait... You and Sun... You and Sun did the do?"

Sun replied, "Yeah. It was some of the best sex I've had since my academy days in Mistral. In fact, I'd say it was better than that, actually." Everyone then laughed.

* * *

At 9, as Yang returned home from George's apartment, the tones dropped and the house siren blared. "Aw c'mon, I just got home!"

"Yeah, yeah," Ruby said. "Let's wait and hear what it is. Damn, that's a lotta tones."

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for a Second and Third Alarms at Box 2341 at Beacon Academy Building 19 for Vigilant Fire 5, Goodwill Engine 6, Excellence Fire 7, Enterprise Steamer 10, Valeanian Legion Ambulance 12, Kroeger Hose 11, Tuxedo Fire 9, Auburn Hose 8, April Summers Engine and Hose 4, Vale Port Complex Station 1, Vale Port Complex Station 2, the Assistant District 1 and District 1 chiefs, and the Deputy Chiefs for a structure fire. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for a Second and Third Alarms at Box 2341 at Beacon Academy Building 19 for a structure fire. Time is 2103 hours, Alarm Operator 88."

"Holy shit," Yang said. "That's the CCT. That can't be good."

Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Blake dashed to the stairs of the apartment building and ran down them as fast as they could. When they got outside, the ambulance had already left the station. As soon as they ran into the station, Weiss said, "Building 19 is the CCT, right?"

"Yep," Ren said as he ran to the team wearing his gear. He had been doing a duty shift when the call came in and had started up Truck 201. "This will be bad. That place is fucking huge."

Hermann then walked up to Weiss and said, "Honey, we'll do our best. Hopefully the CCT at Beacon doesn't get too badly damaged."

"Hopefully," Weiss replied. "Hopefully..."


	14. Season 1: Part 14

At 9:07, Truck 201 rolled out the door with a crew of 10, all interior, soon followed by Rescue 201 with a crew of 10, 6 interior. As the firefighters in the back of the truck's cab suited up and put their SCBA on, Hermann said, "They just struck a 4th Alarm! The top 4 floors of the building are involved, as well as one of the elevator shafts. This is getting bad."

"Tell me about it," the driver of the truck replied. "I bet by the time we get there, it'll be 6 alarms."

At 9:38, Truck 201 and Rescue 201 arrived on scene. Sure enough, by then, a fifth, sixth, and seventh alarms had been transmitted. The truck and the rescue staged in a parking lot as the crew got suited up and awaited orders. Then, the captain of Vigilant, Arthur Kirkridge, said to Hermann, "Vigilant's been ordered to go to the 3rd Sky Lobby on the 105th Floor. The fire is on the 140th, 139th, 138th, and 137th floors, and it has engulfed one of the express elevator shafts. I want all interior personnel from the truck and the rescue except for Lieutenant Alfred Schnee and Firefighter Amhlaidh Egret since they drove the trucks to go to the 105th floor. The paid guys and the 2 volunteers that were on the ambulance will man it down here. I'll go up with you guys."

Ruby looked up to see where the fire was and stared in awe at the inferno. The Cross Continental Transmit at Beacon Academy was the 4th tallest building in the city and in the Kingdom of Vale, surpassed only by three other buildings that were 152 stories, 165 stories, and 165 stories respectively in District 1. When it was built in 1991, it was the tallest building in Vale and the second tallest building in Remnant, surpassed only by the CCT in Atlas City, which was 150 stories.

Weiss told her, "C'mon, you can stare at it later. We gotta go to the 105th Floor." The group then walked to the entrance of the massive building, passing by dozens of emergency vehicles and onlookers.

They reached the 105th Floor at 9:49, after taking the remaining express elevator shaft. There, paid and volunteer firefighters from various companies mingled in their gear and awaited orders to move up to the fire, rescue people trapped, move back down to other floors or to the ground, etc. By then, an eighth alarm had been transmitted, bringing the number of companies/paid stations going to the call up to 61. Additionally, all firefighters had been ordered to stay off of any floors above the 136th because the 140th and 139th floors had partially collapsed.

Yang said, "I'm gonna text George." She then bent down to roll down her hip boots and reach for her phone in her pocket.

Blake said, "Just be sure to report back to us if we get called up to fight the fire. They're rotating companies."

"Got it. I'm gonna go meet up with him now. Text me if something happens, Ruby."

"Got it, sis!" Ruby then waved goodbye to her. "She won't get in trouble for that, right?"

"No," Weiss replied. "As long as she doesn't have anywhere else to be other than in the general area of the call, she's cool. She better get her ass back here if we do get called up."

Ruby said, "I think I feel my phone vibrating. I'll go check who it is." She then took off her SCBA and coat, as it was very hot in the crowded sky lobby, and rolled her boots down as she grabbed her phone and checked the text. It was from Delwyn IV.

He texted, "You're at that huge fire right?"

"Yea i am we were called on 2nd alarm what r u up to?"

"Just watching the fire on TV with some advisers. How about u?"

"awaiting orders on 105 floor nothing special"

"Cool. Stay safe, Ruby. You're my best friend."

"i will thank u" Ruby then said to Weiss, "I think I notice something with Delwyn."

"The king? What?"

"Well, he considers me his best friend. I can see why, since I am a very friendly person. But I'm suspecting that he may see me as more than that..."

Weiss stared at Ruby for a few seconds in shock. "You... You think the king has a crush... On you?"

"It's so weird! I don't feel anything like that towards him, though. After all, I have a girlfriend. I guess I'll have to reject him if he does make a move on me, which I highly doubt since he knows of Gwen."

Blake asked, "What are you 2 going on about now?"

"Nothing," Ruby quickly replied. "Nothing involving you."

Then, Weiss heard orders on the radio for Vigilant firefighters to go up to the fire to take the place of another company that was coming down to take a break. "We gotta go. Ruby, get your sister."

"Nevermind that. She's coming over here now." Ruby then put her gear back on.

"I'm back," Yang said as she pulled her hip boots back up to her thigh and checked her SCBA. "Let's get ready to roll."

The 15 Vigilant firefighters in the building then boarded 2 local elevators to go up to the 130th floor. They would have to climb the rest of the way up to the top floors. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all boarded the same elevator with 3 other firefighters, including Captain Kirkridge. The captain said, "Ready for this, probies?" He was referring to Ruby, Yang, and Blake.

"Yep," Yang replied. "When do you want us to put our SCBA on?"

"When we first encounter smoke," the captain replied. "Show them how high-rise firefighting is done, Weiss."

"You got it, captain." She then turned to Ruby. "You know, this ain't the first time there was a fire at Beacon. I remember when one of the dorm buildings burned in a 3-alarm fire just a few months before I went to Beacon. When I mentioned to the guys there I was going to the school soon, the BFC firefighters all wanted me to join. I declined since I wanted to focus on my studies and stay a member at Vigilant when school was not in session. Then there was the fire in Ozpin's office in our final year at Beacon. Remember how my dad literally picked my gear up at the station and handed it to me for that?"

"Oh yeah," Ruby replied. "That was the first time we met your dad. How many alarms did that go to?"

"2 alarms because it was a high-rise. It was only a small fire, thank God."

Blake said, "How much longer 'till we get to the 130th floor?"

"Not too much longer," replied Yang. "We only got 5 more floors to go."

After another minute, the elevator stopped at the 130th floor. Captain Kirkridge said, "Let's roll out." The group then stepped out of the elevator into the hallway of the floor. This floor was home to a variety of offices for multiple companies that occupied space in the CCT, including the Scroll Corporation, who had its worldwide headquarters on floors 38 to 67, floors 74 to 100, and floors 108 to 135 in various offices.

"According to this map on the wall," Weiss said. "The stairs are this way." She then pointed to the direction of the stairs.

"Let's go that way then," the captain replied. He then led the group through the hallways to one of the stairwells, which was marked as stairwell "B." Once he opened the door, he saw that the floor was covered in dirt and blood from all the people who had rushed down when the fire first started. "Let's get ready to climb. The other 3 companies up there already have hand lines secured."

As the team climbed up the stairs, they could hear the occasional bang and clatter from up above as the fire took its toll on the building. Ruby asked, "How is it that fire travels upwards, yet this fire traveled down?"

Weiss replied, "It's probably from parts of the floor collapsing onto the floor below and starting those floors on fire. That, and the heat of the fire, I guess."

When they got to the 135th floor entrance on the stairwell, the 2 groups of Vigilant firefighters met with another group of firefighters from another company. The commander of that company said, "You're here to take our place?"

"Yep," the captain replied. "How many lines you got set up?"

"We got 3 hand lines ready to go." The commander then pointed to the hand lines. "Just fill them up with water and roll out. We had to retreat into the stairwell because it got bad on that floor."

After setting up their SCBAs and putting their masks on, the captain said, "I want 3 groups of 3 manning the lines. Everyone else will stay back here and man the standpipes."

Weiss, Yang, and Ren manned the first hand line. To advance into the floor itself, Weiss felt the door to see how hot it was. She then sprayed it down through the broken glass on the double doors to cool off the area around the doors on the other side. As smoke poured from the broken windows, visibility went down to zero. Weiss then pulled out Myrtenaster, which was retracted and attached to her belt, and fired a round of dust, destroying the metal double doors' hinges. "I always keep my weapon with me."

As the three hose teams moved in and sprayed the area down, creating more smoke, Weiss moved her team to the left, while the second team went straight and the third team went right. Ren said, "Keep moving forward! Do you need more hose?"

"Yeah," Weiss replied. "Tug some more." As the 3 of them advanced further, Weiss directed them into an office room that was engulfed in flames. She then sprayed down the office, knocking the fire inside down.

Yang said, "How much more do we got?"

"A lot," Weiss replied. "Once we knock down this office, we gotta hit as many more as we can so that this doesn't flare up again like what happened to the last team up here."

Once the first office was knocked down, Weiss led her team to the office next door. When she opened the door, she immediately knocked down the hot, searing flames shooting outwards with the nozzle and advanced inside. Yang said, "Holy shit!"

Suddenly, a part of the wall collapsed. Weiss and her team narrowly missed being hit by flaming debris, and Weiss quickly directed water at the remnants. "We got about 12 minutes of air left of about 20. When we reach 5, we gotta get outta here!"

Then, Yang, searching the floor blind with her hand, felt a body. "I feel someone! I feel someone!"

"They're dead," Weiss yelled back. "It's been almost an hour. Leave them there. We got other issues." Weiss then knocked down the last of the office with water. As she led her team back to the hallway, she said, "Change of plans. We're gonna hit the fire in the hallway!"

Yang said, "How many victims are there?"

"At least 4," Ren said. "I'll explain it later!"

After crawling down the hallway for about 35 feet and spraying the burning ceiling all the while, Weiss said, "Let's start heading back! We're down to 6 minutes of air."

"Got it," both Yang and Ren said in unison. Weiss quickly turned herself and the hand line around. Right after she turned her team around, the ceiling caved in behind them, sending shockwaves through the floor and scaring the living daylights out of the team.

Yang said, "That was too fucking close!"

"You can say that again," Ren said, exhausted.

Weiss radioed, "Vigilant Line 1 to Vigilant Captain, the ceiling fell behind us, but we're fine. We're heading back since we don't have much air left."

"10-4," Captain Kirkridge replied over the radio. "Vigilant Command to all Vigilant lines, start heading back."

When the team finally made it to the stairwell, they were exhausted from fighting the stubborn fire. They were soon followed by the other 2 teams, both equally exhausted as well. When the last of the firefighters left the burning floor and into the stairwell, the captain quickly closed the door behind them to make sure no more smoke entered the stairwell.

"Alright," the captain said. "I want the other 6 guys that didn't go in to grab the 3 hand lines and advance to the 136th floor and fight the fire from the stairwell. Everyone else, stay here in case they need help."

Weiss took her helmet off and ripped the SCBA mask off of her face. She then took a huge breath of air and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "That was a rush... My God..."

Yang, after taking her SCBA mask off, said, "That was a hell of an interior attack."


	15. Season 1: Part 15

At 2:36 in the morning, Truck, Rescue, and Ambulance 201 all returned to quarters. The firefighters that had responded to the CCT Fire were exhausted.

After the volunteers lined up to fill out the roll call sheet, the paid firefighters went back upstairs, carrying their bunker pants with them and leaving their helmets and coats on the ambulance. Their gear, consisting of leather boots, pants and a coat with black with yellow/white stripes, a protective hood, 2 composite gloves, and a futuristic helmet with built-in protective goggles, a back heat shield, a visor, and a clip for an SCBA bottle was in sharp contrast to the rugged gear of the volunteers at Vigilant, which consisted of a traditional leather helmet, a 44-inch long black coat with solid yellow stripes, a pair of roll-up rubber boots that could be pulled up to the thighs, 2 orange fireball gloves, no pants, no visors, no hood, and no frills. Many volunteer companies were very resistant to change and stuck with the latter style, which dated back decades. The paid guys hadn't worn similar gear since 1987.

At 2:48, George drove to the station and parallel parked nearby. He then walked in and said, "Hey Yang, over here!"

Yang ran over and gave him a big hug, saying, "Georgie!"

"That was a hell of a fire, wasn't it?"

"You got that right. Wanna go back to my place for a little bit and have some fun?" Yang seductively gave George a smile and giggled.

"Of course," George replied.

Yang said to the group, "I'll see you girls later. Bye!"

Ruby replied, "See ya later, Yang."

Weiss said, "Wanna wait here to let them bang?"

Blake replied, "Good idea. They're loud when they get it on, especially Yang. I mean, I should know, since we used to go out until June this year, after all."

Ruby then turned and walked to the recreation room of the firehouse downstairs. Blake and Weiss soon followed her. Weiss said, "Turn it to VNN."

Ruby flipped the TV on and turned the channel to Vale News Network, or VNN, a 24-hour news service run by the Valeanian Government under the VBC, or Vale Broadcasting Corporation. They were talking about the fire still. By now, all units except for those that were on the first alarm had been ordered to return to service. "It says here they know what started the fire."

Blake asked as she opened a can of soda, "Was it terrorists?"

"No, purely accidental this time. It says here the fire broke out in an elevator on the 140th floor as 4 workers were painting it. When they opened the door to escape, it ignited all the paint and paint thinner and set them all on fire. One guy crawled out and died in a hallway, while the other 3 accidentally pushed a button to send the elevator to the 137th floor. When they stumbled out, they collapsed in a bathroom across the hall and set it on fire. They were 4 of at least 9 fatalities."

Weiss shuddered when she heard that. "Uhhh... Me and Yang found a body in the building..."

"You did?" Blake was stunned. "What did you do?"

"I told Yang to leave the body there since we had to fight the fire."

Then, Winter walked in, her hair once again covering her right eye. "Hello girls."

Weiss replied, "Hey there, sis. Wanna drink?"

"Alcoholic please." Winter then signed a sheet saying she would not respond to calls for 1 hour for every drink she had.

Weiss bent down behind the bar, opened a refrigerator, and said, "What do you want?"

"Münchenfelderbier, please."

Blake said, "Traditional Atlesian beer, I see. You have a good taste in beer."

"Of course," Winter replied. "Adolf Schnee, who was the founder of the SDC, had an investment in the Münchenfelder brewery because his wife was the daughter of the then-owner of the brewery. Since then, the SDC and the MBBC have been linked together, though they've never been the same company. There have been talks in the past for the SDC to buy the MBBC, but they've come to nothing."

Ruby said, "What doesn't the SDC do nowadays?"

"I know," Weiss replied. "It's crazy what my family... Well, our family, has invested in in the past 50 years. As late as 1944, we were only involved in dust and shipping. Now we're involved in auto manufacturing, weapons building, transportation infrastructure, telecommunications, and more. I'm surprised neither the Atlesian or Valeanian governments haven't knocked on our door to tell us to break up. Then again, nobody's told the Scroll Company to close up shop for basically being a computer and mobile phone monopoly, since their competitors combined have less than 18% of the market share."

"In hindsight," Blake said. "I guess while it was good business to expand, it also made the SDC a lot of enemies. I should know, for reasons."

Winter replied, "Oh yeah, the double-track train robbery thing. That's not a big deal for me personally. The train sucked anyways. If anything, you and your ex-boyfriend saved the SDC from more losses from that monstrosity of a failure by delivering the final nail in the coffin early." She then turned to Ruby. "So, what was your past like? We've pretty much covered everybody else."

Ruby said, "Me? Oh yeah. Huh... Well, my dad was a teacher at Signal, and he was a volunteer for Patch First Aid Squad and Signal Fire Company. My mom, Summer, wasn't a volunteer because she was busy with hunting. My dad's first wife and Yang's mom, Raven, was a vollie at Signal Fire until she left the area after their divorce. I remember when my dad would get a call either for Patch or Signal. He'd kiss us goodbye, kiss my mom goodbye, and run out the door to his truck and take off to the station. For EMS calls, he went to Patch unless he was working at Signal. For fires, he went to Signal."

Weiss, interested, said, "Your dad was in Signal and Patch?"

"Yep. He was the only one in his family to be a fireman. The Branwens, on the other hand, founded both companies. My uncle Qrow is still in both companies. Yang still wonders why she didn't join either of them back then."

Blake asked, "Is he still in both?"

Ruby replied, "He left them for 3 years after Summer went MIA because he was really depressed. He rejoined both of them, and currently, he's the captain of Patch First Aid. He's Car S2."

"I think I've heard him on the radio before," Blake replied. "Is Qrow an officer?"

"He's currently Signal's captain. He's Car S1. It can be challenging to be Signal's captain, since a lot of their guys are students and aren't old enough to do interior operations. He often has to hand command over to someone else and go inside because if 15 or 20 guys show up, only like 5 or 8 are interior firefighters. Patch First Aid has more interior guys than Signal Fire, and they don't even have any firefighting vehicles."

"Say, here what the VCVFA wants to do? They wanna renumber the school-based fire companies to fit the numbering system. They also are taking in applications from all around the city to form new fire companies. They also support the reformation of the Fire Patrol." Winter showed the group a document from the VCVFA about the proposed changes.

"Where are they?" Ruby was curious.

"One is in our district and will take over parts of our first-due and Goodwill's first-due. In total, this would increase the number of volunteer companies to 100. A few guys from our company and Goodwill are gonna be joining the new Meilyr Broderick Fire Company 91 to help them out. There's also the Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad and the Peng Kueng Fire Company. They're all named after the people who proposed them. If these go into effect, all 3 companies will be on our run cards for box alarms and Code 99s. It will be 5, 6, 91, and 92 plus 93 instead of 5, 6, 7, and 10 plus 12. Situ Mingyu Rescue will take over ambulance duties for Goodwill and Enterprise's section of Excellence. It's expected to do at least 1,750 calls per year and will be all-volunteer."

"Good," Blake replied. "We need more vollies. It could take the load off of us."

* * *

_**September 26, 2020**_

It had been 2 weeks since the CCT fire. Since then, repairs had been scheduled to be done on the CCT starting on October 10, 2020. Also, the clearing of the exclusion zone and expansion of the city was going well. Most of the forest had been cleared, giving the Grimm monsters little room to hide from hunters and aircraft. It was expected that the clearing stage would be complete by December, and the construction of the second city wall would start soon after.

Blake was reading a newspaper in her apartment in the morning when she got a phone call from an unknown ID. She answered it and said, "Hello?"

"Hello there. Is this Blake Belladonna?" A male voice on the other end seemed innocent enough.

"Yes, who is this?"

"I need you to come to Huntingdon Borough. It's about a 26-minute drive from Vale City. When you get there, go to the woods in the north of the borough and you'll see a road called Tall Tree Road. Turn on that and stop at the first building on it. Meet us there." The man then hung up.

Blake was confused. "Who was that?" She then got up, wrote a note on the table, and walked into her bedroom to get changed. She then grabbed Gambol Shroud and opened a gun vault in her closet. There, she grabbed a pistol, 5 15-round hollow-point magazines, an axe, and a serrated hunting knife. She said to herself, "This is a fucking trap, and I know it."

She donned a business suit and hid the gun in a pocket inside her shirt coat. Gambol Shroud and the axe were hidden in a suitcase she carried. She also removed her bow and exposed her cat ears.

* * *

At 10:42 A.M., Blake arrived at Huntingdon, a small borough of 1,000 residents. She thought to herself, _"What would the White Fang be doing here? This area is literally farms, farms, more farms, and forests."_

As the man said, she drove her car to the forest north of the borough and turned onto Tall Tree Road. At 10:51, she parked at the first building on the road. Sure enough, it was some sort of meeting house. It was completely unmarked, but it looked like it was used. There were several cars and an old bus already parked in front.

Blake got out, adjusted her suit and tie, and walked to the building. When she opened the door, she was greeted by a 122-strong group of White Fang members sitting in pews all listening to a speech by a White Fang high-rank.

The high-rank said, "Well, well, Miss Belladonna, welcome to our gathering. I was the man who called you here, by the way. Do you recognise me?"

"Yeah, you're right. I do. You're that high-rank that I almost busted for fucking human prostitutes."

The crowd gasped. "That was a lie, Belladonna, and you know it."

"I know there's nothing wrong with that these days. After all, I fucked a human myself, and it was another girl at that. We broke up and became friends, but let me tell ya, it was the best damn sex I ever had." Blake smiled.

A voice in the crowd shouted, "You traitor! You're a stain on faunus!"

The high-rank angrily shouted, "You sick pervert! I thought that Taurus traitor was good enough for you!"

"But you killed him. Any sort of sympathy I may have had left for the White Fang left on that day and NEVER returned. Anyways, I have proof you did hire human prostitutes, including a male one." She then opened her briefcase and took out 10 pictures. "These 10 pictures were taken by you in 2013 and 2012. I found them by accident and I was going to tell the leaders, but I left the group before I could." She then threw the pictures into the air.

Another crowd voice said, "Major Banesaw is a traitor!"

"That Blake girl is lying! Major Banesaw would never do that!" Blake then began to walk out as several WF guards began grabbing their guns.

After several more shouts, a woman walked up to Blake and yelled, "You are a sick girl! You slept with a human! How could you?! Those humans rape and murder us every single day."

Blake stopped. Then, she turned around, grabbed the pistol from her suit, and aimed it right at the woman's head, frightening her.

Suddenly, a knife was thrown by a crowd member at another crowd member, and Blake shot the woman right in the head, killing her instantly. All hell broke loose as a three-way battle broke out between Blake, those who believed Blake's accusations, and those who supported Banesaw.

Blake grabbed the Gambol Shroud from her suitcase and put the pistol away. As a WF member tried to lunge at her, she stabbed him in the chest with her knife. She then threw the briefcase at the front door, grabbed her knife, and charged at the crowd.

Within the crowd, blood spilled like crazy. Blake shot a man who tried to punch her and followed it up by breaking the neck of a woman who was attacking the same man. A man who tried shooting her had his gun grabbed from him by Blake and his throat stabbed with Gambol Shroud. Blake then grabbed the assault rifle the man had dropped and fired into the crowd, killing another 5. Blake created a shadow clone of herself to block a man with an axe. She then shot said man twice with the assault rifle before it ran out of ammo.

A man tried hanging onto her from behind. She responded by throwing him to the ground. When he got up, Blake bit his neck and stabbed him in the stomach with her knife. She ripped out a mass of skin and tissue and spat it out on the ground before using Gambol Shroud to decapitate a woman who tried to stab her. She then switched Gambol Shroud into pistol form.

A man suddenly stabbed Blake in the shoulder from behind. Blake, who didn't flinch at all, replied by shooting him in the head, splattering his head all over the place. She quickly took the knife out of her shoulder and then used her own knife to stab a woman who charged at her several times.

Then, Banesaw charged at her with an axe. Blake coldly shot him in the stomach, walked behind him, and decapitated him before shooting and killing 2 guards fighting each other behind her.

Blake charged once again at the infighting crowd. She slashed the throats of 4 as she ran in and stabbed another. She then shot 3 others and decapitated a man who tried hitting her with a piece of wood. She grabbed a woman's arm, twisted it so badly she gave her a compound fracture in two places, and stabbed her in the eye before shooting her. By now, she was clearly in a killing frenzy fueled by adrenaline.

Finally, after 3 more gruesome minutes, everyone in the building was dead except for Blake. By now, she was covered in blood, vomit, and guts from the White Fang members she had just killed. She took several deep breaths and walked outside, putting all of her weapons away in the briefcase. Suddenly, the realisation that people would discover this hit her. _"Oh fuck... I need to find a way to get rid of all this."_

She quickly grabbed a lighter from her pants pocket and walked around the meetinghouse. She opened a door to another room and found a bunch of plastic explosives and incendiaries inside as well as several detonators. Blake said to herself, "Perfect..." She also found spare clothes and a shower inside. Because the area just outside of the borough was relatively unpopulated, and hunting regular animals was common thus explaining the gunshots, it would take a while before anyone found out.

After showering, she changed into the spare clothes, a white t-shirt, a bra, underwear, and jeans, and began laying out the explosives and incendiaries inside the church. She also left her original suit, pants, and underwear inside.

At 11:14, Blake timed the detonators to go off at 11:30, leaving her ample time to leave. She quickly ran to her car with the briefcase and sped away. She stopped by the fire station in the borough at 11:26 and grabbed a radio scanner, tuning in to the Huntingdon County Fire Dispatching frequency of 46.4500. The county was a rural area of about 75,000 residents located in 6 towns and 8 boroughs with 42 all-volunteer fire departments and 7 all-volunteer ambulance squads, so the fire department frequencies were never busy.

She decided to walk inside the fire station, opening the front door and seeing that there was nobody inside on the first floor. Inside, there was a long rack of about 30 sets of turnout gear similar to that worn by Vigilant on the back wall. As she walked around, a woman walked down the stairs from the second floor and asked, "Hello?"

Blake turned around and saw the woman, a dog faunus who was a secretary and a volunteer firefighter. "Oh, hello there. I was visiting relatives in another part of the county when I stopped by here. I'm a volunteer firefighter in Vale."

"Really? What company?"

"Vigilant Fire. So, I assume you're a volunteer too?"

"Yes. My name is Claire Smith. I'm a secretary and a volunteer here. My family's been involved with the Huntingdon Fire Company since they helped create it in 1938. As you can see by our run board, we don't get a lot of calls, even with an ambulance that serves 3 surrounding fire departments in 1 borough and 1 town plus a ladder truck. We get about 500 calls per year, making us a busy department by our county's standards. About 85% of our fire calls are mutual aid."

"Huh... Interesting. Anyways, I got a scanner tuned in to your county's dispatching frequency right here."

Then, they were interrupted by a call going out on the radio. "Standby Auburnia Rescue Squad for a medical." The pager tones for Auburnia Rescue then dropped. "Huntingdon County Fire Control for Auburnia Rescue Squad, respond to 811 Brookdale Road for a Delta-determined EMS call for a 72-year-old female with difficulty breathing and chest pains. The patient has a cardiac history. Time of dispatch, 11:33."

"Where's that?"

"Auburnia is a borough next to us. Their fire department doesn't run to EMS calls because they have a separate rescue squad. Their FD gets less than 100 calls per year, but their rescue squad gets about 700 since they serve 2 other fire departments. They have 32 members, an engine, a tanker, a rescue, and a brush truck in their fire company and 20 members and 2 ambulances in their rescue squad."

"Interesting. How many guys do you have here?"

"We have 42 volunteers that serve our department. About 10 are paramedics, including me, and another 14 are EMTs. We have 2 engine-tankers, a tower ladder, a brush truck, and an ambulance. We actually got our truck from a company in Vale. I think it was from Valiant Hook and Ladder."

"Valiant? That's really close to my company, Vigilant. We're in the same district of the city, District 2. What's the model?"

"It's a 1996 Avex Tower Ladder with an 85 foot tower, a 1500 GPM pump, and 300 gallons of water with an 8-seat cab. We bought it used in 2012 to replace a 75-foot mid-mount straight stick quint from 1976 that we sold to a private collector. We got that ladder from East End Fire Company in Port Royal and refurbed it in 1991, expanding the cab from 4 seats to 6 seats. The truck carries our rescue equipment, such as the jaws of life and cribbing, since we don't have a dedicated rescue vehicle." Suddenly, they were interrupted again.

"Standby Brookdale Fire, East Brookdale Fire, and Huntingdon Fire for a structure fire."

Claire said, "Oh boy." She then ran to get her gear as the 6 tones (3 pager/3 siren) dropped for both departments. As Blake looked on, pagers in the station rang and the siren control box clicked, turning the station's siren on.

"Huntingdon County Fire Control for Huntingdon Fire, Brookdale Fire, and East Brookdale Fire for a reported structure fire on an unknown address on Tall Tree Road. A driver reported seeing heavy smoke from the area and said it was possibly a building on Tall Tree Road. Time of dispatch, 11:38."

Claire rolled her boots up and ran to the radio booth in the station. She then radioed, "Fire Control, Huntingdon Base acknowledging the call." She then ran back out to put her coat, her gloves, and her helmet on.

Meanwhile, Blake was shaking, thinking she had been caught. She thought to herself, _"Oh no..."_

Claire asked, "Are you okay?"

Blake then snapped back to reality. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Wanna come with us? I can put you in a flip-down seat on ETA 1-1-1."

"Uhhh... Sure, Claire. I'll go." Blake then walked to ETA 1-1-1 and opened the back door. She then sat down in one of the 8 seats aboard the engine-tanker. Meanwhile, Claire jumped into the driver's seat and got the engine started as 3 more firefighters ran into the station.

At 11:55, ETA 1-1-1 arrived on scene. By then, an engine from Brookdale was also on scene. Blake got out and began taking pictures of the fire with her phone as the Huntingdon firefighters got to work. By now, the fire was mostly a brush fire, with nothing left of the meeting house.

Blake thought to herself as the firefighters fought the fire, _"Was it all worth it?"_

* * *

Blake returned home at 3:42. She had called the team individually and told them to meet at her apartment.

The team sat down at Blake's kitchen table. Yang said, "So, Blake, what happened?"

Weiss asked, "What was the purpose of the note you left?"

"Well," Blake replied. "You see, I got a phone call from Banesaw. He invited me over to a safehouse in the borough of Huntingdon about 26 minutes from here. I knew it was a trap from the start, so I went over in a suit and tie armed with some weapons in a briefcase. I also exposed Banesaw by showing a crowd of White Fang members pictures I had found in 2013 of him having sex with human prostitutes. After a while, I had turned the 122-strong crowd on itself. Then, I noticed they were also going to attack me, so I attacked. In the end, I was the only survivor."

Ruby said, "You WHAT? You went on an unsanctioned solo mission and killed 122 people?"

"I didn't kill all of them! They were tearing each other apart. They wanted to kill me too. I ended up blowing up the place with some explosives and incendiaries I found. I left my old suit there and changed into spare clothes I found there."

Weiss was bewildered. "You... Whoa... That's... That's incredible!"

Yang said, "Okay, team, let's keep this a secret between us, okay?"

Ruby replied, "Agreed. I want NOBODY telling anyone else what happened at Huntingdon. Do you agree, Weiss and Blake?"

They both nodded.

"Now, Blake, I honestly believe that you were in the right here. Besides, they were terrorists, so there's gonna be very few tears shed anyways."

Blake took a deep breath and said, "True... But... I guess I did go a bit overboard. I did go crazy when I was fighting."

"Don't we all?"

Yang replied, "True that."

Weiss replied, "Same here."

"Now we gotta worry about what the White Fang will do," Blake replied. "Especially since I killed one of their majors. But, we'll be ready for whatever comes our way."


	16. Season 1: Part 16

_**September 29, 2020**_

Today, Blake was working the telephones at the Fire Alarm Office. On the TV, a morning talk show played on VNN, discussing the news of the day.

Blake answered a phone on a redirected 911 line. It was 10:04 AM. "Fire Department, Alarm Operator T875."

"My wife is having a heart attack! She's having chest pains and she can't breathe!"

"Sir, where's your address?"

"We're at 1872 Willow Lane! Please hurry!"

"Does she have a history of heart issues?"

"No!"

"How old is your wife, sir?"

"She's 52 years old! Hurry up!"

"Okay, sir, I'll notify the fire department ambulance immediately. Call back at 010-453-9221 if you need to update us." Blake then hung up and typed in the info of the call onto the CAD system. She then sent it to the paging station.

Another dispatcher said to her, "You're doing a good job, new guy. It won't be long before that letter T is removed from your ID."

"You got that right," Blake replied. Then, the dispatchers heard the signal on the TVs get interrupted. "Huh? What the hell is that?"

Then, the White Fang logo popped up on the screens of any TV showing VNN, VBC, or HBS, 3 major channels in Vale. A voice said, "For the liberation and empowerment of faunus everywhere against humanity, I present to you the White Fang."

Blake shuddered and thought, _"Oh fuck no..."_

Text popped up on the screen that said, "For massacring faunus everywhere, we will deliver justice to the monsters in uniforms known as police and soldiers. For supporting these monsters, we will also deliver justice to firefighters, paid and volunteer. Watch your back."

Then, 4 masked White Fang members appeared, holding assault rifles. They stood behind 2 families, all nude. One family had a man, a woman, and 4 children aged 17, 13, 9, and 4. The second had 2 women and 2 children aged 3 and 6 months. One of the terrorists said, "Humans of the world, these 2 families in front of us are an example of what us faunus are capable of when we stand together to kill you. The first family belongs to Lilac Chloris, the sheriff of Huntingdon County. The second family belongs to Mark Smith, the chief of the Huntingdon Volunteer Fire Company."

Blake said, "No... They wouldn't..."

Lilac said to the camera, reading from a script she held, "My name is Lilac Chloris. I am a Mistrali-Valeanian. I am 41 years old and a lesbian. I was elected to the position of sheriff in 2019 by my filthy human constituents and the traitor faunus that support them. If humanity does not submit to the faunus, and if the police do not stop killing faunus, the White Fang will only kill more of us officers and their families."

Mark Smith read, "My name is Mark Smith. I am the chief of the Huntingdon Volunteer Fire Company. I am 57 years old. I have been chief since 2018. Since I support the murderers in blue, I will be punished. All firefighters in Vale will be hunted down and killed for supporting the monsters in uniforms."

Another terrorist said, "Now it is time for justice." He then grabbed the 6-month-old baby from Lilac, who replied by screaming and crying. He then punched the baby in the skull, causing him to cry and bleed, threw him on the ground hard, and shot him. The other 3 then shot the rest of the group dead with their assault rifles. The screen then faded to black.

Tears began to form in Blake's eyes. In her time at the White Fang, she had seen horrible stuff and had even done some horrible stuff, but she had never seen them go this far. _"This... This was all my fault for killing Banesaw..."_

Another text message then popped up, saying, "Be prepared, Vale. We will strike again."

* * *

Blake got home at 4:35. There, Sun and Ruby were waiting for her. "Let me guess, you saw that shit on TV, right?"

"We did," Sun replied. "Ruby told me everything."

"Look, I'm sorry. I know that was my fault. I shouldn't have gone on my own."

"It's not that," Ruby replied. "We want to hunt these fuckers down ourselves. I talked to Delwyn IV earlier, and he said he is looking into beginning an operation to end these bastards for good before they cause any more harm."

"That will be impossible," Blake replied. "You can't kill an idea. We can weaken them, but every time we do, they just pop back up again."

"But we can neuter it," Sun said. "We can demonize it and remove the capability for it to be armed. After all, we can't kill the idea of Authoritarianism, but we sure did demonize it and ridicule it to the point where it's not taken seriously anymore."

Blake was about to reply, but stopped herself. "True... We will be ready when they strike again."

Ruby then got a call from Gwen. "Hello? Oh hi there, Gwen! Sure. I'll go out. I'm free for the night. Really? Alright then. I'll see you there. Bye." Ruby then hung up. "I'm going out with Gwen tonight."

"I'll tell Yang," Blake replied. "By the way, no pun intended, the Vale Pride March is on October 2nd at noon. Remember that."

"I will."

As soon as she said that, the siren went off at the station. "Let's go see what the call is."

When Ruby and Blake got to the station about 2 minutes later, they found a few guys who were doing bunk-in duty waiting. The ambulance had already left. "What's the call?"

"It's a car accident," a volunteer said. "Bravo response. We're going alone." They then saw Car 5 speed past the fire station.

As Ruby and Blake got their gear on, Weiss ran in. She said, "Any more room on the rescue?"

"On the rear step, I guess." The rescue then started up. Blake and Ruby ran to get in the cab, taking the last 2 seats. Weiss put her boots and helmet on, grabbed her coat, and ran to the back of the rescue-pumper. There, she stepped up onto the rear step, threw her coat onto the hose bed, and held on as the rescue drove out of the station with its lights flashing and siren blaring.

When they arrived about 5 minutes after the call came in, the paid guys and a volunteer that rode with them were treating the only patient in the crash. The rescue blocked the roadway.

Weiss got off, pulled her boots up, and put her coat on. She then opened a compartment and grabbed traffic cones to put around the scene. Ruby and Blake got out of the rescue and opened another compartment to grab cleaning supplies.

Weiss said, "Ruby, Blake, clear the scene of broken glass and small debris and make a pile of it with the brooms."

Blake replied, "Got it." She then grabbed a broom and said to Ruby, "How long do you think we'll be here?"

"About 45 minutes, since it usually takes that long for a towing company to get here. Don't know why."

* * *

_**September 30, 2020**_

It was 6 PM. At the Wednesday meeting, 2 new members of the fire company were going to be sworn in, the first since Ruby, Blake, and Yang had joined.

In the meeting room upstairs, Team RWBY talked amongst themselves. Weiss said, "I predict we'll get a fire right after we swear the new kids in. There's always a call after these things." Then, they were interrupted by the pagers ringing. "Is that a fire call?"

"No," Hermann replied. "Just an EMS call for a fall. Nothing major."

"Anyways," Weiss continued. "The day I was sworn in, we had 2 Code 99s back to back plus an MVA with extrication. I didn't go to bed until 5 in the morning. Luckily, there was no school tomorrow because of a water main break that cancelled classes at my private school for 3 days."

"Holy shit," Yang replied. "I can't imagine staying up that late. What kept you up?"

"For the first time in my life, I drank coffee and liked it. It was in the dead of winter too."

"Did somebody call my name?" Winter asked.

"No, sis. I'm telling them of the night I was sworn in like 9 years ago."

Afterwards, the meeting was called. Captain Kirkridge said, "A moment of silence for yesterday's events." After a pause for a minute, he said, "Okay, let's begin. First order of business is that we will be swearing in 2 new members to the fire company. They are Theresa Mikusch, aged 15, and Denis Ap Owain, aged 12, soon to be 13. Teresa, you may stand up."

The girl, a brunette with her hair in a short ponytail and one strand a green colour, stood up. Weiss walked over to her carrying a book containing the fire company's rules and regulations. Weiss said, "Repeat after me. I, state your full name."

"I, Theresa James Mikusch."

"Do hereby declare,"

"Do hereby declare,"

"That I will support the Kingdom of Vale,"

"That I will support the Kingdom of Vale,"

"And respect and uphold its laws."

"And respect and uphold its laws."

"Furthermore, I will protect the City of Vale,"

"Furthermore, I will protect the City of Vale,"

"From the threat of fire,"

"From the threat of fire,"

"As a volunteer firefighter of the Vigilant Fire Company."

"As a volunteer firefighter of the Vigilant Fire Company."

"Furthermore, I will provide,"

"Furthermore, I will provide,"

"Rescue and emergency medical services,"

"Rescue and emergency medical services,"

"To the City of Vale."

"To the City of Vale."

"I will not reveal,"

"I will not reveal,"

"Sensitive information,"

"Sensitive information,"

"Unless authorised to."

"Unless authorised to."

"I recognise that my badge,"

"I recognise that my badge,"

"Is a symbol of trust,"

"Is a symbol of trust,"

"And if I break that trust,"

"And if I break that trust,"

"I will face the consequences."

"I will face the consequences."

"As a volunteer firefighter,"

"As a volunteer firefighter,"

"I will accept no compensation,"

"I will accept no compensation,"

"In the form of money."

"In the form of money."

"Finally,"

"Finally,"

"I will do my duty to the best of my ability."

"I will do my duty to the best of my ability."

Weiss then said, "Welcome to the fire department, Teresa." The crowd then clapped.

She shook Weiss's hand and said, "Thank you. You can call me Tracy if you want to."

After Weiss also swore in Denis, the meeting continued. The captain said, "Now onto other business. The company treasurer will now speak."

"Okay," said the company treasurer. "We have a total of 3 bank accounts. Account 1 has a total of 287,569 Lien and 74 Sublien. Account 2 has a total of 422,435 Lien and 20 Sublien. Account 3 has 98,343 Lien and 15 Sublien. Total income for this week from the 23rd to the 30th is 10,232 Lien and 8 Sublien. Total expenses for the week from the 23rd to the 30th is 9,342 Lien and 18 Sublien. The sources for these expenses and income have been posted on the bulletin board and the website. For the week of the 3oth of September to the 7th of October, we are looking at a 15,000 Lien starting budget for any expenses that may occur. Shall we approve this budget?"

All the hands of the company members were raised.

"Any objections?" Nothing. "Abstentions?" Still nothing. "Okay then. The finance part of this meeting is over."

The captain said, "Alrighty then, let's all go downstairs to go over-" Suddenly, the pagers rang, soon followed by the siren tone. "Or not."

The firefighters ran to the bunk room in the front of the building and formed a line to go down one of the 2 fire poles in the station. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Blake ran to the second fire pole over Truck 201's bay. When they got down, they ran to their gear and quickly put it on. The call was for a structure fire in Goodwill's first due. The ambulance was still at the hospital and advised that they would divert to the fire once they were available.

Weiss got in the driver's seat, having been certified as a driver just before leaving for Beacon. Hermann got in the officer's seat. He said, "You're finally driving to a call for once."

Weiss laughed and said, "You're right. The problem is is that when I get here, this seat's already taken." She then turned to the back of her. "Are all the seats filled?"

"Now they are," said the new girl. "I can go, right?"

"Yeah. Is Denis here too?"

"No, he's on the rescue."

"Alright then. Looks like we got a crew of 10 with 8 interior guys. Dad, you do the radio." Weiss then drove the truck out of the station and flicked the lights and electronic siren on.

Hermann radioed, "Fire Alarm, Truck 201's en route, crew of 10, 8 interior."

4 minutes later, Truck 201 arrived, narrowly beating out Goodwill's Engine 202. They arrived to smoke pouring out of a 4th-floor window in a residential building with a store on the first floor. As the interior firefighters got ready, Car 5, Car 6 and Rescue 202 arrived. Theresa and Denis met and congregated near the captain to watch the fire as 6 interior firefighters from Truck 201's crew grabbed tools, secured their SCBAs, and got ready to go in.

Ruby stayed outside and helped to secure the hydrant. Weiss, Blake, and Yang grabbed a hose line from the truck and opened the first floor door to the apartments above the store. Weiss said, "We're gonna go in, hook up this line to a standpipe, and when the truck fills the dry riser with water, we spray. Remember, when we get to the 3rd floor, put your masks on."

Blake and Yang nodded. The 3 of them then went up the stairs to the second and third floors. By now, all the occupants had pretty much flooded into the street. The team behind them carried pike poles and axes for venting.

When they got to the foot of the stairs to the fourth floor, the 3 of them put their masks on. Weiss then led them to the standpipe on the 4th floor, right next to the stairs. "Yang, open the connection and connect the line to the standpipe."

"Got it," Yang replied as she opened the cabinet of the standpipe up and secured one end of the hand line to the standpipe. "We're all set."

Ruby screeched over the radio, "Interior, here comes the dry riser water!"

Weiss replied, "10-4. We're attacking now." By now, 2 apartments were involved, and the fourth floor was full of smoke. The venting team went to the fifth floor to cut holes into the floor and break windows to let out smoke from the fourth floor.

Blake was at the end of the nozzle. She led her team to the burning apartments. She said, "Wait until we begin to hear the axes chop up the floor above and break the windows."

Blake said, "Got it." Then, they heard the thumping of axes above them as the venting team cut up the floor below them, as well as the sound of breaking glass.

Weiss grabbed Myrtenaster from her coat belt, unsheathed it, and fired a round of dust at the door, breaking it and sending wood chips all over. Blake immediately sprayed water into the wildly burning apartment, sending thick and blinding smoke all over the place. As she did, Engine 202 began spraying the apartment next door from the outside with a deck gun.

Weiss frantically radioed, "Engine 202, we're still in the building!"

"10-4, we'll shut down the gun."

"Vigilant Interior to Incident Command, send another nozzle up here."

"10-4, we got a 2-man nozzle team coming up from Goodwill."

* * *

_**October 2, 2021**_

The Vale City LGBT Pride Parade was today. At 11, Yang, Blake, Ruby, and Weiss all congregated near a rainbow-coloured fire engine that would march in the parade with a police car, an ambulance, and an infantry mobility vehicle to represent firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and military personnel in the LGBT community.

The firefighters marched in their turnout gear. Weiss would drive the engine. As Ruby and the new girl, Theresa, talked amongst themselves, Yang walked over.

"Hey guys. Are you 2 ready?"

"You got it," Ruby replied. "You know, Theresa here is pan too."

Yang said with excitement, "Really? You're pansexual too?"

"Yep! I'm pan as hell. You know, are you sure marching with the cops and the military is a good idea?"

"Huh? Why?" Yang looked confused.

"There's been some grumblings from other LGBT people at my school and stuff about that, because they don't trust the cops or the troops and don't like them. I'm afraid to tell them of my affiliation as a fireman."

Yang immediately saw where this was going, and her eyes turned red. "Well listen here. I held nothing but contempt for those radicals. They insult people like me and my sister and friends, and I will not stand for that. They further divisions in the community, and that is the last damn thing we need, Tracy. I seethe with anger at them, as you can tell by my eyes changing colour, almost as much as I seethe with anger at homophobes and transphobes." She then took a deep breath and calmed down. "If they cause a ruckus, ignore them and keep marching."

Blake said, "I heard about that. Will there be radicals here?"

"Probably amongst the crowd," Theresa replied. "I don't think the organisers would take kindly to opposing groups in the same parade."


	17. Season 1: Part 17

The march began at 12. As the thousands and thousands of marchers and spectators began to shuffle and walk, Yang said, "Here we go. Remember, don't be afraid of anyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from."

Theresa, Blake, and Ruby nodded. Ruby said, "And remember, let's have fun."

As the emergency/military vehicles rounded the corner of the intersection of Mayer Avenue and Union Street, they saw protestors holding up anti-LGBT signs. One of them shouted, "Shame on you for supporting the homos!"

Yang looked straight ahead, ignoring them. Theresa and Ruby giggled, with Ruby saying, "The anti-gay crowd just keeps getting more and more ridiculous."

"They just keep digging themselves deeper and deeper," Theresa replied. "I ain't even mad anymore."

Then, as they passed under the Fifth Avenue Elevated Rail Line, a large red and black banner was unfurled. Yang looked up and said, "No..." Ruby, Blake and Theresa also looked up and had their facial expressions change from cheery to shock. Weiss, in the fire truck, stared at the sign in shock.

_**LIBERATE QUEERS NOW! ABOLISH THE MILITARY AND EMERGENCY SERVICES THAT OPPRESS US! NO MORE HETERONORMATIVE SOCIETY! NO MORE ENTERPRISM! NO MORE HETERO-DOMINATED GOVERNMENT!**_

The sign had the logos of the VCPD, the VCFD, the Flag of Vale, the Royal Coat of Arms, and the Valeanian Military branches crossed out with red Xs.

Immediately, police officers in the crowd, uniformed and plainclothes, ran to the tracks above through maintenance stairways to stop the radicals. The crowd and the marchers looked at the sign with disgust as the parade suddenly stopped in its tracks.

Yang said, "I knew this would happen." She began to growl.

Blake grabbed a pride flag from the fire truck behind her and said to the group, "I got an idea."

Theresa said, "Huh? What are you doing?"

Blake climbed up on top of the truck, waving the pride flag, and shouted through a megaphone, "Say NO to these radicals who want to divide us against ourselves! They actively attack the services that protect our community from harm! They attack the services which many in our community work and volunteer for! They seek only to destroy the gains we've made in the legal system and in society for their false promise of liberation! They want to see us segregated from society in separate communities! Say NO!"

The crowd that could hear her began to clap and cheer. Weiss, underneath Blake in the cab of the truck, said to herself, "Go Blake!"

Blake then took her formal hat off and revealed her cat ears. She said, "If you still need proof, take a look at me! I'm considered an oppressed person two times over! Yet I can still stand up here and condemn these instigators that are dangerous to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and plus community and the faunus race! Remember, the White Fang used to be peaceful too, until radicals took it over and turned it into a killing machine! Do you want the LGBT community to end up like that too?"

The crowd around her yelled, "NO!"

"EXACTLY! We will stand up to these proto-terrorists before they can grow in numbers and equipment!" Blake then stepped down from the fire truck to a cheering crowd.

Weiss rolled down the window and said to Blake, "You were amazing! You really got the crowd going!"

"Thanks." Blake then turned to Yang, Ruby, and Theresa, and said, "Let's continue with our march."

* * *

After the parade ended, there was a party held at Union Square Centre, a 10-building complex containing 8 skyscrapers, including 3 165-storey buildings, a transportation hub, and a convention centre.

Team RWBY admired the skyscrapers above them. Ruby said, "They're actually building an even taller place nearby that'll be 172 stories. They laid the foundation in."

"Crazy," Blake replied. "Soon there'll be buildings over 200 stories. I wouldn't wanna fight a fire in these skyscrapers."

Weiss laughed and said, "You have nooooo idea. Well, you do from the CCT fire, but I've been up on the 102nd floor of a building in downtown for a fire when I was 16. It took a LOT outta me. I've fought at least 10 high-rise fires in my life."

Then, a spectator walked over to the group with Theresa. "This guy is complaining of chest pains and he isn't breathing good."

Weiss said, "Okay, Tracy, let him down on the ground." She then grabbed her EMS bag and looked through it for a bag valve mask. "Yang, go get a medic over here."

Yang shouted, "We need a firefighter-paramedic over here!"

A random man from the crowd ran to her and said, "I'm a medic with a vollie company!"

Weiss looked to him and said, "Come over here! I can't administer drugs!"

Ruby held the man's hand and said, "Don't worry, sir, you're gonna be okay."

Weiss put the BVM over the man's mouth and began squeezing the bag to administer air. The medic ran over and grabbed a nebulizer from the bag and put a can of albuterol in it. "I'm gonna administer albuterol."

Weiss nodded and took the BVM off of the man's mouth. 2 firefighters ran over with a wheeled stretcher, waiting for the patient. The medic then administered the albuterol. Weiss ripped the patient's shirt off to put on electrodes. She then took an EKG reading.

Ruby and Blake read the stats. Blake said, "That's not good."

Weiss then handed her equipment over to the 2 firefighters with the stretcher. "I got 166 over 102 for blood pressure and his heart is speeding along at 144 BPM. Be sure to bring the equipment and bag back to Vigilant Fire Company 5 when you're done." The 2 firefighters nodded.

"Holy shit," Yang replied. "That's high."

"No kidding," the medic said as he helped put a board under the patient to lift him up onto the stretcher.

Weiss patted Theresa on the back and said, "You helped a lot by bringing him over to us, Trace."

Theresa smiled and said, "Thanks."

* * *

_**October 5, 2020**_

Yang, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, and Ren met at Beacon. Today would be the day that they would all go into the exclusion zone again, this time from October 5 to October 9. The mission to clear the exclusion zone of Grimm was nearing its end, and construction on a new city wall surrounding the former zone would begin on November 20.

Ren said as the team sat in the library of Beacon, "Nora wished us all good luck. She says she wishes she could be here to kick some Grimm ass and break some Grimm legs." He was reading texts from Nora.

"Tell her thank you," Weiss said. "We'll more than happily make up for ass not kicked and legs not broken by her not being here."

Jaune laughed. "I remember that! That became like the running joke of Team JNPR throughout Beacon. Toaster isn't working? Break its legs. TV on the fritz? Break its legs. Bird shits on your stuff? Break its legs. Enemy of the week bothering you? Break their legs."

"Didn't we break Cinder's legs?" Ruby asked.

"Adam did," Blake replied. "When he fought Cinder, he smashed her legs before killing her and then dying of his injuries. Believe me, there were bones sticking out of her legs."

"Jesus," Weiss replied. "I know Cinder was a bad person, but that was a bit much. Then again, she did support a terrorist group and lead it for a few months, not to mention she had a hand in killing the President of Menagerie in 2017."

"That pissed me off so fucking much," Blake replied. "When I was in the group, while we did condemn the Menagerie government for being "nice to humans," we didn't target their leaders because they were faunus. Now the White Fang wants to kill faunus who disagree with them too. It was one of our core ideas that we should never harm other faunus unless they attack us directly in person first. That Third Crusade book is what really made the group a violent organisation."

Jaune said, "Anyways, how's the fire service?"

"Growing in Vale City," Weiss replied. "A bunch of new companies have been approved. They'll be in service by late November and early December. Also, the Underwriters Board has decided to reform the Fire Patrol by February of next year after a huge petition campaign to bring it back was launched. In regards to us, we swore in 2 new members, both junior firefighters."

Ruby then got up and said, "Hold on, I gotta take a phone call for a sec. I'll be right back."

Yang grabbed a box out of her bag. "Hey guys, remember Remnant: The Game?"

Ren replied, "Of course. You guys would always play it loudly here and I'd get annoyed. Wanna duel?"

"Sure." Yang then grabbed her card deck, followed by Blake and Weiss. "I brought my 3 decks, so Jaune, you can use my Green-Blue deck, and Ren, you can use my Black-Yellow deck. All we gotta do is wait for Ruby." She then unfolded the playing board and grabbed the pieces before giving Ren and Jaune her other decks.

Ruby then came back. "Nothing major. So, we're gonna play Remnant: The Game? I'm in."

* * *

_**October 6, 2020**_

Team RWBY had had 4 kills so far today. The time was noon.

As the team walked through a burned-out patch of forest, Ruby said, "You can easily smell the napalm in the air. They really toasted the wood here."

"Toasted might be an understatement," Weiss said. "A few weeks ago, a fire started by the bombs almost burned out of control before the air force dropped water on the fire."

"The lumber industry's gonna have a hard-on for all the trees they'll still have to tear down," Blake said. "I bet most of it's gonna go into the houses here."

Ruby then shushed the entire team. "I hear something," she whispered.

Then, a giant nevermore appeared from above and swooped down at them. The team got out of the way as it crashed into the ground, got up, and charged at Yang.

Yang jumped up and onto the nevermore's back, shooting deafening blast after blast of shotgun shells into the creature to weaken it. Weiss then froze the monster's tail to the ground with Myrtenaster. She said, "Someone slash the nevermore!"

Blake slid under the beast and slashed it across the stomach with Gambol Shroud, severely injuring the creature. She said, "Go for the kill, Ruby!"

Ruby jumped up onto the creature and placed her scythe's blade around the nevermore's neck. She then jumped up again, decapitating the beast and killing it. Its head flew in the air for a short while before the entire thing dissipated into red leaves.

The team regrouped on the ground, proud of their 5th kill of the day. Ruby said, "Good job, team. Good job. But we still got a lot more work to do. As for now, I need to take a piss since I drank water faster than my semblance back at base. Yang, Blake, Weiss, hold the fort, or lack thereof."

The 3 of them nodded. Yang said, "We'll make sure of it, sis."

Then, Jaune radioed to them, "Platoon 1 Firebase to Fireteam 1."

"Go ahead," Weiss replied.

"Return to firebase for an assignment."

"Roger. We'll return."

Blake said, "I wonder what that's about."

"No clue," Weiss replied. "We can't be too specific on the air for confidentiality reasons."

Yang said, "I wonder if there's anyone listening in on the communications for this operation."

"Probably not through a streaming website," Weiss replied. "There are websites where they stream the fire department and police department radio communications, but it would be illegal to stream military radio ops in an active warzone. Hell, most of the websites for the volunteer companies feature their own streams for their radio frequencies."

Ruby then returned. "Alright, I'm back. What did I miss?"

"We gotta go back to firebase for an assignment per Jaune's orders."

"Okay then. Team RWBY, let's roll out."


	18. Season 1: Part 18

_**October 9, 2020**_

"Fucking sick," Weiss said as she read a military newspaper in the morning at the firebase. "The news is getting worse and worse by the day."

Yang replied, "You got that right. What kind of sick fuck would run over firefighters intentionally?"

The story being mentioned was news from Sparta, the third-largest city in Vale, right next to Apamea. There, a member of the White Fang had taken his car and ran over 7 volunteer firefighters doing a boot drive in the city, killing 3 of them, before crashing into the station, also killing the terrorist and destroying a ladder truck.

"He left a really screwed up note in the truck," Weiss said as she read further. "I can't read it. It's too... Wow..." Weiss then threw the newspaper in the trash can behind her. "Let's just say that we are now explicitly labeled as targets by the White Fang for being firefighters."

"I've been to Sparta before with Nora to visit her sister there last year," Ren said. "I actually visited the firehouse where that happened. They have a volunteer hose company, a volunteer truck company, and a paid medic company there. I'm still shocked."

"How does Sparta work?"

"They have like 80-something stations with volunteer hose companies, truck companies, engine companies, chemical companies, rescue companies, and salvage companies. There's like 174 different single-truck companies that are volunteer. They also have 24 paid engines, 10 paid trucks, and 56 paid medic companies. They're crazy good down there."

"Single-truck? How do they fit all the firefighters that show up?"

"They limit volunteer companies to 30 members per company." Ren then got a phone call. "Hello? Wait, woah woah woah, slow down. Huh? Nora's what? Oh my God... I don't know if I should be excited or worried! I'm on a hunting mission, so I'll be there as soon as I'm released. Bye. Tell her I love her." Ren then hung up.

Jaune said, "What was that?"

"Nora went into labour a few days early. When will we be released?"

"We'll get released at 19:00 hours," Jaune replied, looking at schedule.

Weiss said, "Nora's giving birth?"

Pyrrha's ghost then tapped Weiss on the shoulder, saying, "Hey there, Weiss."

Weiss jumped and yelped, confusing the others. "Uhhh..."

Ruby said, "Weiss... Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Weiss quickly replied. "I just... I just felt something crawl on my leg." She then got up and went outside.

Pyrrha's ghost said to her, "Nice excuse. Soooo... Nora's in labour."

"Yep. A bit early, but oh well."

"I wish I could have had children with Jaune."

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Why did you say that now?"

"Uhhh... No reason."

"Are you trying to guilt trip me into getting knocked up by Jaune, because if you are, it isn't working, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha's ghost worriedly chuckled and said, "No I'm not. Why would I be? I have no motivation to do that."

Weiss could tell Pyrrha was lying. "Look, I'm not having kids until I'm older and married, and that will be when I'm 25 at the earliest. Right now, I don't know if things between me and Jaune will get that serious, so don't get your hopes up, especially about kids."

Pyrrha sighed and said, "I understand. You know, I never even thought about having any children until Jaune came along. He... He made me feel all these things that felt... Well... Good. Very good. I went to bed many nights having dreams about us in the future, with a wedding, and kids, and a house somewhere, not to mention kicking Grimm ass." Pyrrha then wiped her eyes, smearing part of her face with blood from her ghost wounds. "I miss him every single day, Weiss. I'm sorry I let my feelings get in the way of you and Jaune after I died. It's just... It's just that I kinda see a part of me in you whenever you're around him."

"Really? You see yourself in me? That's... Odd..."

"Jaune deserves a woman who will treat him right and make him happy. Can you do that for me, Weiss?" Pyrrha then walked over to Weiss and hugged her. She also began crying to herself.

"Sure... I will..." Weiss ignored the bones sticking out of Pyrrha's arms as she returned the hug. "We all miss you, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha then split from Weiss and said, "Thank you. Don't worry. I will return from time to time." She then disappeared.

Weiss reached her right arm out to where Pyrrha was for a few seconds before she sat down on a log nearby. As she buried her head in her arms, she began to quietly sob to herself. "Pyrrha... Pyrrha..."

* * *

At 10, Team RWBY, Ren, Sun, George, and Jaune all went down to the hospital where Nora had given birth. Ren went into the room first. There, Nora, dressed in a hospital gown and laying on a bed, was cradling her child. She said, "Hello, my lovely husband."

Ren walked over and gave her a kiss before saying, "The child is beautiful. Boy or girl?"

"Girl, just as we predicted." Nora smiled. "She has your eye colour and my eye shape."

Ren chuckled and said, "I think she has your hair colour. Can I hold her for a sec?" Nora nodded and handed the baby over to Ren.

The baby, awake, looked at Ren in interest and babbled some nonsense at him.

"I'm your father. I love you so much already, Leona." Ren and Nora had earlier agreed upon the name of Nora's grandmother if it was a girl. He then pointed at Nora and said, "That's your mother. Obviously, you've seen her a lot already, inside and out."

Nora laughed. "That is true."

"Say, have you breastfed her yet?"

"Well, I gave birth about 3 hours ago. Shit, I should." Nora then realised her language. "Pardon my profanity."

Ren then handed Nora the baby and said, "Want me to bring the others in?"

"Of course. We've been family since Beacon." She then uncovered one of her breasts to begin feeding Leona.

Team RWBY, Sun, George, and Jaune then walked in. Yang said, "Feeding the baby, I assume?"

"Yep. Everybody's here." Nora then smiled as Leona began feeding off of Nora.

Weiss looked around to see if Pyrrha's ghost was around. She then saw her looking at the scene from the corner, smiling. Pyrrha looked up at Weiss and nodded. Weiss nodded back and put her left arm around Jaune's shoulder.

* * *

Ren decided to stay overnight at the hospital, leaving the rest of the group to go home at midnight.

Ruby checked her phone in her apartment alone, as Yang had headed over to George's apartment for 'fun.' She said to herself, "Seems like couples being in the presence of another couple's baby for a time leads to sex afterwards. Meh, I can see why with the whole 'sex is why babies exist' thing."

She decided to go up to the wall between her apartment and Weiss's to hear if she and Jaune were having sex as well. She placed her right ear on the kitchen wall, which she knew was also the bedroom wall in Weiss's apartment, and listened in.

As she kept listening, she heard grunts and moans. "As expected. I hope they're not actually aiming for a child tonight." She then got a call on her cellphone. "Hello?"

"Hey Ruby, it's Gwen."

"Oh, hi Gwen. How's it hanging?"

"Uhh... Listen... We need to talk..."

Ruby suddenly got a bad feeling. "What happened, Gwen?"

"Listen, Ruby... I need to come over, hold on." Gwen then hung up.

"Oh no..." Ruby then began pacing across her apartment, pondering what Gwen was going to talk to her about. "Please don't be a breakup, please don't be a breakup, please don't be a breakup..."

10 minutes later, Gwen knocked on the door. Ruby let her in. Gwen said, "Thank you."

The 2 of them sat down at a kitchen table. Ruby said, "What happened?"

Gwen grabbed Ruby's hands on the table and said, "Ruby... I... I can't be with you anymore."

Tears instantly formed in Ruby's eyes as she said, "Why..."

"I got hired by the Vale Manorial Constabulary, and I have to move to a new town. The distance is just gonna be too great. I tried an LDR once, and it ended very ugly, so I don't want to take any chances." Gwen then wiped some tears of her own away from her eyes. "This is my dream job. My dad was a constable. They get paid twice as much as city cops." She then got up.

Ruby got up as well and said, "So that's it?"

Gwen walked over to her and gave her a final kiss, this one lasting for over 15 seconds. Ruby held Gwen as their tongues met and mixed together in their mouths before they split. "That is the end. Today was my last day on the job here. I want you to keep my badge."

Ruby held Gwen's badge and said, "I... I... Began to... Love... You..." She then broke down, crying her eyes out in front of Gwen.

Gwen said, "Ruby, promise me that no matter what happens, you won't do anything rash because of this." Tears began to fall from Gwen's eyes. "When I was 16, I had an ex-girlfriend who killed herself half a year after we broke up because of what happened. I don't want that happening to you. Promise me that you'll move on in some way, Ruby... Please..."

Ruby nodded tearfully.

Gwen said, "Thank you..." She then quietly walked out of the apartment and closed the door.

Ruby locked the front door and collapsed onto the floor, devoid of energy. She screamed in pain, emotional and physical, as she felt searing pain across her right arm from falling on it. She then weeped to herself, screaming, "GWEN! NO! DON'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!"

After a few minutes, she tried to get up using her right arm, but when she tried to apply weight to it, she screamed in pain again, causing her to fall to the floor again and cry. This time, though, someone heard her.

Weiss and Jaune ran in, barely dressed, about 5 minutes after Gwen had left, having just finished their sex session and hearing Ruby crying. Weiss said, "Ruby! What's wrong?!" She then turned to Jaune. "Get my EMT bag from my apartment now!"

"Gwen... Gwen broke up with me... I fell on my right arm..." She then cried again, sobbing into Weiss's shoulder.

"Where's the physical pain in your right arm, Ruby?"

"My... My wrist and lower arm..."

Jaune then ran in with the EMT bag. "I got the bag right here! What happened?"

Weiss replied, "Gwen broke up with Ruby, so she fell to the floor and injured her wrist."

* * *

_**October 10, 2020**_

The next day, Ruby was discharged from the hospital with an active healing cast on her lower right arm. She would be out of service until late October for fire calls until the cast was able to heal her injuries. She had broken her wrist and had a greenstick fracture in her radius.

Yang talked to Ruby at home about Gwen. "Should we contact her about the injuries?"

"No," Ruby replied sternly. "She doesn't need to know."

"She does, Ruby. Even if you broke up, she needs to be notified if anything bad happened afterwards. Listen, I called Gwen and told her about it. She said she couldn't visit you because she was packing up her apartment, but she sent you 2,000 Lien."

Ruby looked at Yang for a few seconds and said, "You keep it. In fact, take Gwen's old badge too." She then reached into her pocket with her left arm and gave Yang Gwen's old badge. "I don't want anything to do with her."

"Ruby, calm down. I understand you're still hurt, but you need to be a mature adult about this-"

"I don't care!" Ruby then stood up. "I said I don't want ANYTHING to do with her, Yang! Damn it, won't you listen?!"

Yang's eyes turned red as she stood up. "Take it from me, alright?! I've been through breakups on the giving and receiving ends! You're only gonna make the pain worse if you keep acting like this, especially with your arm!"

"Which she caused. If she hadn't broken up with me because she 'couldn't handle long distances', none of this would have happened!"

"She has every God damn right to break up with you or anyone else for any reason, Ruby!" By now, Yang began to grit her teeth in rage. "She doesn't belong to anybody. Not you, not her other exes, and no one else she'll date from now on! Either accept that or face the fact that you can't handle a relationship with someone, alright?! At least she didn't cheat on you like 2 of mine did! At least she had the common fucking decency to formally break up with you without it devolving into an argument like with me and Blake! You're a huntress, a team leader, and a firefighter, Ruby! You're supposed to handle simple shit like this with ease compared to seeing death and destruction every single day! What happened to you?!"

Ruby tried to counter Yang's point, but as she tried to open her mouth, Ruby began crying.

Yang realised she had pushed her sister too far and calmed down, saying, "Sis?"

Ruby turned away from Yang and said, "No... Don't touch me..."

"Ruby... I... I didn't mean to blow up at you like that..."

Yang tried to approach Ruby, but Ruby looked at her with menacing eyes and told her, "Go. Away."

_"What have I done? I made my own sister turn against me. My arrogance cost me my relationship with my own sister. I feel worthless." _Yang simply walked out of the apartment and shut the door. She then pressed her back against the door, slid down to the ground, and placed her head between her legs. She then began to sob to herself. _"Why did I explode at her like that? Why?"_


	19. Season 1: Part 19

_**October 12, 2020**_

Weiss, and Yang got out of the rescue rig at the fire station at 11:34. They had just returned from a carbon monoxide poisoning call. Blake was working overtime at the fire alarm office. By now, Ruby and Yang had begun to make up from what happened 2 days ago, but they were still cold to each other. To Weiss, the tension between the two was awkward and thick, and she had had enough of it.

As Yang put her gear away, Weiss walked up to Yang and said to her, "When you are done, meet me in my dad's office."

A short while later, Yang sat down in the captain's office with Weiss. Hermann was packing up some paperwork and said, "How long will you be?"

"Not long," Weiss replied. "I need to have a serious meeting with this probie over a personal spat she had that I am sick of."

"Okay then. Just tell me when you're done. I'll be in the truck bay checking the bottle compressor." Hermann then walked out.

Weiss then turned to Yang and Ruby. "Okay then, let me start off by saying this. I can tell that your personal issues are having an effect on your firefighting. You have been down and out at calls because of Ruby. Listen, I know that you feel bad. I would in the same situation. But you cannot let it affect your work, both here and at the hunting recruitment office. I will discuss this with Ruby as well on Wednesday night at the company meeting. Do you have anything to say to me?"

"Weiss," Yang started. "What happens between me and my sister is between us and only us, okay? There is no need to turn this into a fire department issue."

"And it shouldn't be a fire department issue, Yang. You're right about that. But it is, unfortunately, because since then, you've been terrible at listening and you've been spacing out at calls. That's why I have to speed up the healing. I want this to end completely by Wednesday night, or else we're gonna have some serious issues here, Yang. Remember, not only am I a higher rank than you as an interior firefighter-EMT in this company, but I am also a close friend, so I have every right to intervene in your life if I feel it's beginning to affect your performance negatively, plus it means that I care immensely about your well-being. Normally in most workplaces, it would be unethical to interfere in the personal lives of your employees or volunteers, but here, it's accepted to a somewhat greater degree because your performance here can literally mean the difference between someone living or someone dying. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Weiss. I understand." Yang sighed. "This whole Gwen thing really threw me and Ruby off."

* * *

Back at the apartment, Ruby, out on a disability for the rest of October, was bored. "I have not a fucking thing to do," she said as she flipped through the channels on the T.V. and listening to all the paging calls on her pager, which was in scan mode. She had also turned on 2 scanners she had gotten for her birthday back in July that scanned the fire frequencies of the city. As always, the city was extremely busy.

She had heard Blake on the dispatch frequency for District 5 several times. As she watched the news and drank a bottle of beer, she looked on her phone, trying to figure out who to text. She then picked someone who she thought was Jaune.

She texted, "hey there! what's new?"

She then began to get a reply. That's when she realised that she accidentally texted Delwyn IV instead of Jaune. "Not much, Ruby. How about you?"

"OHHHHHH SHIT I DID NOT MEAN TO TEXT YOU SORRY IF I INTERRUPTED ANYTHING"

"No no no, it's fine. I just got done with a meeting. So, what's new with you?"

"Gwen broke up with me and I broke my wrist. nothing major"

"What? No way!" Delwyn then decided to call Ruby.

Ruby answered, "Hello? Why did you call me?"

"I was just worried, that's all." Delwyn blushed. "I don't want a friend getting hurt."

"Say, are you free today?" Ruby had a devilish thought.

Delwyn checked his schedule. "Uh, yeah, until like 7 tonight. I can come over, I guess. I'll need to grab some stuff, though, so I won't get targeted or something."

"Okay then," Ruby replied, smirking. "I'll see ya soon." She then hung up.

As she waited for Delwyn for the next 20 minutes, Ruby drank another alcoholic drink, this time being a shot of whiskey and a glass of wine.

Then, at 12:07, she heard a knock at the door. Ruby opened it and saw Delwyn IV with a guard. "Hey there, my king."

The guard said, "I'll be outside if you need me, sir."

"Thank you," Delwyn replied. He then shut the door and turned around to talk to Ruby.

Ruby replied by grabbing him by his shirt with her unbroken arm, startling him. She said, "You're coming with me."

Delwyn said, "Ruby, what are you doing? Uhhhh..." He was completely caught off-guard by Ruby's advances.

Ruby then dragged him into her bedroom and shut and locked the door behind them. "Delwyn, I know you're my leader and sovereign and whatnot, so this all seems weird with you being here with a subject and all, but I know you've had a crush on me for a while. Since Gwen left me to follow her stupid dreams, I decided that maybe I could give someone who actually liked me a chance." Ruby put her lips onto Delwyn's, sticking her tongue into his mouth. "Now, Delwyn, you know what to do."

Delwyn replied, worried, "Ruby, I really don't know. I've never had sex before. I was always too busy and I had an image to keep up. Look, I think you're just trying to cope with losing Gwen."

"You caught me red-handed," Ruby replied. "But I know you've wanted to tap my ass for a while. Listen, you've never had sex before period, and I've never had sex with a guy, so we're kind of on the same page. Now, I would recommend saying yes, but it's up to you."

* * *

At 12:44, Yang, Weiss, and Jaune returned to the apartment building. After Yang waved Weiss and Jaune goodbye, she unlocked her apartment door and opened it. She called out, "Ruby, are you still here?"

In her bedroom, Ruby and Delwyn IV freaked out as Yang returned home. Delwyn quietly said, "Oh shit!" He quickly began to get dressed.

Ruby said, "Ugh, I can't believe I did that." She quickly got dressed as well, her face turning red from embarrassment. "Don't let this get out to the news, Delwyn!"

Yang then suddenly opened the doors, "Get what out to the-"

There, Ruby and Delwyn IV were half-naked, trying desperately to get dressed. Ruby stammered, "Uhhh... Hi, Yang..."

Yang stared at them for a few seconds before rubbing her eyes in disbelief and saying, "No... No way... My little sister just... You... You fucked..."

Delwyn quickly said, "Yang, don't overreact, okay? No one has to know."

"I know that!" Yang then rubbed her forehead. "It's just... Holy shit, this year has been... Wow... First me and Blake broke up, then I hooked up with a dude, then Weiss hooked up with Jaune, Blake with Sun, Oobleck died, Ruby came out and lost her virginity, we almost fucking DIED a few times, and now this! What the actual fuck?! Is 2020 like the year everything changes?!"

Ruby replied, "Yang, I think you're overthinking this." She then sighed. "I guess I got ahead of myself. I did indeed have sex with Delwyn IV, our sovereign and king. Why? Well, I guess I was just... I don't know..."

"You were craving affection, Ruby. I was too when me and George first hooked up." Yang then walked over to the couple. "Look, I'm telling both of you this right now. Do NOT let this leak to the news. They will rip both of you apart, and I fear that the rest of the government might try to use this against Delwyn. Okay?"

Ruby and Delwyn nodded. He said, "This will not leak."

"Other than that, I really can't stop you from fucking like rabbits or whatever. Have fun, but don't do anything in public until you both decide to get more serious than just hookups." Yang then smiled. "Say, who initiated it?"

"I did," Ruby replied. "Delly here has a crush on me."

Delwyn blushed, "Okay, fine, I'll admit it, I do. But seriously, who wouldn't? Ruby is so attractive, it isn't even funny. Speaking of that, she is funny, nice, caring, and cute as all hell."

"Cute? Why not hot or sexy or something?"

"You're those too. You're like all of those together. Regardless, what I'm trying to say is, I really like you, Ruby."

Ruby's eyes widened as she mouthed to herself, "Oh. My. God." She then said, "I can't believe it. Out of all other women and girls out there, a royal, and the God damn King at that, likes _me. _You passed up people potentially infinitely wealthier and more power than I will ever be for a relatively simple girl like me."

"Wealth and power don't matter," Delwyn replied. "Now, how will you respond?"

"Uhhhh..." Ruby scratched her head. "Listen, Delly, the sex was great, and you're passionate, but the thing is, I may need more time to sort my feelings out. I can tell you I'm beginning to see you as more than a friend, but I would like to think about it more before we jump in."

"I understand," Delwyn IV replied. "Well, I gotta go."

Yang said, "Guys, you 2 handled this very maturely. I'm honestly surprised. Good job." She then patted both of them on the back and led Delwyn out.

After the door to the apartment closed behind them, Delwyn said to Yang, "I feel bad for doing that now. It just made things awkward between me and Ruby, and I don't want to ruin our friendship if we decide being more than friends isn't the way to go." Delwyn then sniffled. "Listen, I had little, if any, friends inside that castle. Ruby is the first actual friend I've had for a long time. With her being a girl and me being a guy, it was only a matter of time before I crushed on her. I don't want to lose her, Yang." He then wrapped his hands around Yang and began to cry.

Yang returned the hug and said, "Don't worry. Ruby won't abandon you, even if you 2 don't make it as a couple. I can assure you of that. That isn't like her at all."

She then heard the siren of Vigilant roar up to signal a fire call. "Well then."

As the dispatcher announced the call over the air, Delwyn asked, "What is it?"

"A 2nd alarm!" Yang then ran down the hall. "Tell Ruby to listen to it!"

Weiss opened her apartment door and ran down the hall to the stairs. Jaune waved goodbye to her. He then looked at Delwyn IV and said, "Oh my God, are you-?"

"Yes, I am. Long story."

* * *

When Yang and Weiss got to the station at 1:00, about 2 minutes after the call came in, the ambulance was already gone. As they ran to their gear racks, another firefighter said, "The ambulance is out on a medical, so they won't be able to go."

Weiss said, "How many guys do we got?"

"9 right now!" The firefighter, Iomhair Egret, climbed aboard the truck as 3 more volunteers ran in.

Weiss and Yang tightened the straps on their helmets as they ran to the truck and climbed aboard. Weiss stood up and began to buckle her coat in and pull her hip boots up while Yang strapped into an SCBA and buckled herself up. As Weiss sat back down, the truck rolled out with a crew of 10, 7 interior, at 1:02.

Yang said, "What's the status of the fire?"

Weiss's uncle Alfred replied, "It's a 100-foot warehouse with 5 floors in District 1, Tuxedo Fire's first due. The fire's hard to find, but there's a shit ton of smoke!" Then, they heard a 3rd alarm being struck at 1:03. "3 alarms! They got a bunch of guys in the building looking for the seat of the fire!"

Yang said to Weiss, "If only Ruby wasn't in a cast."

"Too bad she had to miss this one. Same with Blake."

At 1:15, Truck 201 arrived. By this point, the ambulance had returned from the hospital and was responding to the scene, and the rescue was just a few minutes away with a crew of 9, 6 interior.

The crew jumped out of the truck and was directed by Captain Kirkridge to stage at the back of the truck. A non-interior firefighter was handed a hose line from another engine and dragged it to Truck 201's pump, where he connected the line to an intake.

The captain walked over and said, "Alright, I want all interior firefighters from the truck to go onto the roof and begin cutting holes in it. We got 5 paid guys up there already from the Port Complex."

The driver of the truck climbed to the turntable and began operating the controls for the ladder, slowly raising it up.

Weiss said to Yang, "Grab an axe from the compartment on the driver's side next to the pump."

"Got it." Yang ran to the compartment and opened it, quickly grabbing a heavily-used axe. Based on the scratches and burn marks, it was clear the axe had seen many fires.

Once the ladder's tip reached the roof, the 7 interior firefighters from the truck climbed up the ladder, sometimes getting enveloped in the billowing smoke rising from the building. Yang coughed as she tried to hold her breath when a cloud of smoke flew past her. Weiss said, "You get used to it. Don't worry."

"Should I put my mask on up on the roof?"

"No. Don't waste air when there's little smoke. Only put it on if the smoke gets so bad that you can't see on the roof. That's the way I was always taught." As a firefighter reached the tip of the ladder, they sounded the roof with their axe to make sure they were stepping on solid roof.

When they got on the roof, they were directed to go to the southeast corner by the paid firefighters, who were cutting holes on the northwest corner. Weiss grabbed a chainsaw from another firefighter, pulled the starting cord a few times, and began cutting a square hole in the roof.

Meanwhile, Yang and another firefighter began cutting up the roof next to Weiss with their axes. Yang said, "How thick is this roof?"

The other firefighter replied, "Given how long it's taking Weiss to cut that hole, I'd say it's pretty thick."

Weiss shouted, "I'm getting some smoke!"

Then, they heard on their portable radios, tuned in to District 1, Channel 1, "Mayday, mayday, mayday! Kroeger Interior mayday!"

Incident Command immediately replied, "All other units standby, unit calling the mayday, go ahead with your location."

"We're lost inside the building on the 4th floor. We believe we're somewhere on the Bravo side. Send an RIT team! We only have about 10 minutes of air left!"

"Alright, 10-4. Activate your PASS devices now. Incident Command to RIT 1, proceed to the 4th floor on Bravo side to look for Kroeger Interior."

"10-4, RIT 1 rolling out."

Weiss said, "Damn... I hope they get out."

Yang said to Weiss, "Should we switch to a different fireground channel?"

"Not unless IC tells us to." Weiss began cutting into the roof again.

"Incident Command to all non-mayday or RIT units, switch to District 1, Channel 2. Repeating, switch to District 1, Channel 2. We will also be striking a 4th Alarm. Incident Command to Kroeger Command."

"Kroeger Command on."

"How many guys you got in the building, and how are they divided?"

"We have 7 firefighters inside all in one group, chief."

"10-4. RIT 1, you copy? 7 guys in 1 group."

"10-4, chief. Put RIT 2 on standby."

"10-4, RIT 2, go on standby for RIT 1 in case they need help."

"RIT 2, copy."


	20. Season 1: Part 20

By 1:33, the Vigilant firefighters on the roof had cut 3 holes, letting out large amounts of smoke. The mayday was 3 minutes in by this point.

The leader of Vigilant roofing ops, an older firefighter named Mairwen Jones, said after replying to something on the radio, "Alright, everybody listen up. The captain asked us to see if we could perhaps enter the building to assist the RIT team. Mask up and meet me at the stairs to the fifth floor."

Yang trembled as she took her helmet off to put her mask on. She had never been involved in the rescue of a fellow firefighter before, and she was scared. Weiss looked at her after she put her mask on and said, "Don't be so tense, Yang. We'll get them out."

As the team walked to the door that led to the stairs, Yang said to Weiss, "This is my ultimate test."

"Indeed. Don't worry. Whatever happens, we'll get through it." Weiss patted Yang on the shoulder as they walked down the stairs to the fifth floor, which was enveloped in thick, blinding smoke.

Mairwen radioed their location as they walked through the smoke and looked for the stairs to the fourth floor. Each floor was about 20 feet high and designed for holding meat in refrigerated environments to keep them unspoiled. The warehouse had been unused for about 10 years.

Weiss and Yang spread out along the expansive floor. Yang said, "That flashlight I just put on my helmet doesn't even help."

"You can say that again," Weiss replied. She then found something. "Hey! I think I found the stairs! I'm gonna radio it in!"

Once the team gathered around the stairs to the fourth floor, Mairwen said, "Let's roll." She then led the firefighters down the steps. As they went down, they could see the smoke get darker and they could feel the heat rising, indicating they were getting closer to the actual fire.

Then, a radio message came on that sent shockwaves down the firefighters present at 1:46. "RIT 1 to IC, mayday, mayday, mayday!"

Weiss said, "Oh fuck, now RIT 1 is trapped!"

"Unit calling the mayday, where are you?"

"We're on the fourth floor, bravo exposure. We've located the Kroeger firefighters, but we're lost now too. Activate all RIT teams to respond to our location!"

"10-4, all units, IC will be transmitting a fifth and sixth alarm. IC to all RIT teams, go to the fourth floor, bravo exposure, to rescue the firefighters calling in the mayday!"

Mairwen said to the team, "Let's hurry it up!" The team got to the fourth floor and began hearing PASS devices going off, but they couldn't figure out which direction they were coming from.

Yang shouted, "CAN ANYONE FROM RIT 1 OR KROEGER HEAR ME?! ANYONE?!"

Weiss shouted, "ANYBODY FROM RIT 1 OR KROEGER?!"

A voice weakly shouted back from across the floor, "HERE!"

Weiss, Yang, and another firefighter ran to the direction of the voice. When they got there, they found a paid firefighter, presumably from RIT 1, crawling on his knees outside of a doorway to an office, tired out.

Weiss said, "Where's the rest of you guys?"

"I'll... I'll try to retrace..."

Weiss called, "Mairwen! Get over here! I found an RIT guy!" She and Yang then ran into the office section, a maze of different rooms that had been haphazardly laid out to hold the original owner's corporate offices.

As Weiss and Yang ran through the maze, they could hear the PASS devices going off like crazy. Yang said, "Those PASS things are driving me fucking nuts."

Eventually, Weiss heard some shuffling out in front of her and said, "Who's there?"

An RIT guy replied, "Help us!"

Weiss and Yang ran over and saw 2 RIT guys attempt to drag an unconscious Kroeger firefighter. He had ran out of air and was close to slipping into a coma. Weiss and Yang immediately took over and began dragging the Kroeger firefighter out of the maze.

At 1:53, they emerged from the maze with a Kroeger firefighter. By the time they did, at least 35 other firefighters had shown up to rescue the other trapped firefighters inside the offices. 3 other firefighters immediately ran to the unconscious Kroeger firefighter and grabbed him from Yang and Weiss. Mairwen said to them, "Grab the next one to come out and run them to the roof!"

Weiss nodded as she heard her low-air alarm begin to go off. "Mairwen, we gotta go now!"

Mairwen replied, "My low-air alarm's going off!" She then radioed, "All Vigilant Interior firefighters, immediately evacuate to the roof!"

Weiss and Yang began running like hell to the stairs, not wanting to run out of air while still in the building. Several times, they almost tripped and fell over several objects in the blinding smoke.

As they made it to the fifth floor, calamity struck. Their masks stuck to their faces as they ran out of air. Weiss took her helmet off and ripped her mask off, immediately coughing as she took in smoke. Yang panicked and fell over, ripping her helmet and mask off.

Weiss said weakly, "Hold on." She then grabbed her helmet, put it back on, and walked over to Yang. She then helped her up, grabbed her helmet, and began walking with her to the stairs to the roof. As they slowly climbed up the stairs, they heard voices behind them.

Mairwen, still having some air, said, "Weiss! Yang!"

Eventually, after what seemed like forever, Weiss and Yang finally made it to the roof at 2:00. As soon as they were clear of the smoke, Yang collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, coughing up soot. Weiss fell to her knees and also began coughing.

Mairwen ran to them, took her helmet and mask off, and radioed for Weiss and Yang to be extracted from the roof immediately. The rest of the team followed and picked the 2 girls up. Weiss was helped up and weakly walked over to the tip of the aerial ladder, while Yang was carried by another firefighter.

When they reached the ground, they were both immediately attended to by several firefighters. Weiss was given a bottle of water to drink from, and Yang was placed on a stretcher and carted off to an ambulance.

After Weiss finished the bottle, she took her SCBA off and ran to Yang. She said to her, "You'll be okay, Yang, we're gonna get you..." She then coughed. "We're gonna get you to the hospital." She then boarded the ambulance with Yang.

* * *

At 3:45, Ruby arrived at the hospital and visited Yang and Weiss. By now, they were waiting on more information from the scene in regards to the trapped firefighters. Yang was lying in a hospital bed, and Weiss was standing next to her, still wearing her rolled-down hip boots.

Yang said to Ruby and Weiss as she checked her phone, "I'm still trying to look for updates. Nothing's coming out yet."

Then, George walked in. He said, "Yang, Ruby, Weiss, I have some bad news." He had just gotten back from the fireground.

Weiss instantly noticed George's demeanour and nodded solemnly.

"They pulled 4 guys out last time I checked, and 2 of them were pronounced dead on the scene. They ordered all firefighters out of the building right after I left. That was at 3:28."

Ruby then received a notification on her phone from a social media site called NowLook. The VCFD had an account on the site that Ruby had subscribed to. She read it, and right after, she dropped her phone in shock.

Weiss picked it up and read out loud, "It is with a heavy heart that we announce that at least 5 firefighters have died and 12 have been severely injured in a 7-alarm fire in District 1. We will release the names and companies/stations of the fallen and injured as we get more information."

Yang's jaw dropped as she said, "Oh my God... No way..."

Weiss replied, "You can say that again. We haven't had an incident resulting in 2 or more firefighter deaths since 2015. This is the deadliest fire involving LODDs since 2009."

George asked, "What went wrong in 2009?"

"7 guys died when a floor collapsed on top of them at a fire in District 6. That was pretty bad." Weiss sighed. "To think, Yang, that guy we pulled out probably didn't make it. He had been unconscious for a while. Fucking sucks..."

George walked up to Yang and hugged her head, telling her, "It's okay. You 2 did your best."

Yang hugged George back and began to cry. "We... We didn't save..."

* * *

_**October 18, 2020**_

After the funeral service for the fallen firefighters had ended, Vigilant Fire Company met at their station to discuss what had happened at the fire at 7:30 PM.

Arthur Kirkridge was the first to speak. "Now, ladies and gents, as we all know, we lost 10 firefighters on the 12th. 10 damn good firefighters. 6 were from Kroeger Hose Company, 2 were from the Port Complex Station 2, 1 was from Tuxedo Fire Company, and 1 was from Port Complex Station 1. Between then, they had about 104 years of experience. Words honestly cannot express how I feel about it. I'm honestly blown away by it. We haven't had an incident this bad in years. Now, as you also may know, several of our firefighters almost became trapped trying to rescue the others. You guys did a tremendous job in trying to rescue them, even if you almost ran out of air."

Hermann then stepped up and said, "If anyone is feeling down about this to a rather unhealthy degree, please talk to someone. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we do not need one of you killing yourselves over this. Anyways, because Kroeger lost so many of its members, we've decided to donate 12500 Lien, 5 SCBA sets, 3 pike poles, 2 axes, 5 50-foot lengths of 2 1/2 hose, 5 50-foot lengths of 1 3/4 hose, and 5 sets of turnout gear to them. We will put it to a vote now. Blake, Iomhair, you will guard the ballot box. The rest of you, go and vote."

The ballot box was an old blackball box dating from 1892. It had white and black balls in it. Blake and Iomhair went up to the box, cast their votes, and then stood guard as the other firefighters walked over and cast their votes.

Once the votes were cast, Blake and Iomhair walked the ballot box over to the officers of the company. Alfred said, "We will announce the results of this vote later in the meeting. Now, does anyone have anything else to say?"

A firefighter who served as the company librarian raised his hand and said, "I do. I received 5 new books to add to the company library. I'll be adding them and cataloguing them tonight. 3 are fiction and 2 are non-fiction. I bought the books using 325 Lien from the company budget. The treasurer already knows of this."

"Okay then," Arthur replied. "Anyways, I forgot to mention another thing. On the 31st, we'll have the Independence Day Dance. I need a committee of at least 5 people to oversee the event. We'll also be using the paid guys to help set things up. Any volunteers?"

Weiss and Ruby raised their hands, soon followed by Theresa and 4 other firefighters. Hermann said, "Alrighty, that's 7. If any of you want to join, we'll offer it again on Wednesday next week."

Alfred then said, "Alright, I'll announce the results of the vote. We voted "yes" to donate the assorted gear and money to Kroeger Hose Company on 18 October, 2020. The company officers will oversee the delivery of the supplies to Kroeger on Wednesday, 21 October, 2020. Motion to dismiss this meeting."

Yang raised her hand, "I second this motion."

Ruby raised her hand, "I third this motion."

"Alright then," Arthur said. "Meeting dismissed."

* * *

**_October 21, 2020_**

At 6, the regular company meeting was called to order in the apparatus bay. Hermann said, "Alright, tonight we'll be doing bailouts from the second floor. Everybody get your gear on and meet me upstairs in the ballroom."

Upstairs, the firefighters formed a line at 2 of the windows. Ruby, still out of service due to her injury, recorded bailouts for one line while a paid firefighter recorded bailouts for the other line.

Weiss was first on Ruby's line. Ruby said, "Go for it"

She immediately began tying a rope she had around a pipe nearby and then tied the rope around her stomach. Once she was done tying all the necessary knots, she slid out of the window head first before stopping herself with her left foot. Now perched above the ground with her right leg hanging out, she slid her left leg out until her whole body was outside the window.

Now suspended by the rope, she rapelled down the side of the wall, her feet hitting the wall and then the garage doors several times, until she landed on the ground. She then got up and untied herself, throwing the rope back up to the other firefighters. "Here ya go!"

After 26 other people did bailouts, Weiss was getting ready to take her gear off, and Blake was getting ready to do her bailout, when they heard the pagers go off, quickly followed by the siren tones.

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 228 for 154 Traders Avenue for a Bravo Response for a Carbon Monoxide alarm going off in Apartment 33 on the 5th floor for Vigilant Fire 5 and Goodwill Engine 6. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 228 for 154 Traders Avenue for a Bravo Response for a Carbon Monoxide alarm going off in Apartment 33 on the 5th floor. Time is 1853 hours, Alarm Operator 433."

Weiss immediately ran to the rescue and started it up, climbing into the driver's seat. The 2 paid firefighters ran to the ambulance and also started it up. Within a minute and a half after the tones dropped, the ambulance rolled out the door, soon followed by the rescue and then the truck.

Ruby watched from upstairs as the trucks rolled out. She sighed and said to herself, "Just another day in Vale."


	21. Season 2: Part 1

_**December 2, 2020**_

The newly-revamped radio system had gone into effect recently. As on December 1, Districts 2, 3, and 4 utilised a new paging channel on frequency 460.5250. This was done to reduce the load on the original paging frequency in the face of rising call volumes. Additionally, the new volunteer fire companies were now in service, and the 3 school-based companies had been renumbered. In total, 33 new fire companies had been formed, increasing the number of stations to 120 volunteer fire companies and 13 paid fire stations. Now all that was needed to be done was reform the Fire Patrol. It was now expected to be complete by the end of January.

Meanwhile, in the exclusion zone, the wall was now under construction. Additionally, Mountain Glenn began to be reconstructed. Buildings that were salvageable were restored, and buildings too badly damaged were torn down. Unlike before, when Mountain Glenn had 3 paid fire stations, this time, the exclusion zone's new residents would be free to form their own volunteer fire companies. The first people would be moved in by February 15, and the new fire district lines would be drawn. Additionally, due to a land reclamation project on Patch that would double its size, as well as a bunch of new developments beyond Signal Academy and the immediate area, Patch would become its own district separate from District 1 by February 15. It was expected that 13 new districts would be created, and the Fire Alarm Office had frequencies for dispatching and fireground all laid out for them pending their creation.

* * *

At 6:30, Delwyn IV and Ruby arrived at the royal palace grounds. Today, they were going to hang out alone for the first time since their little "incident" in October.

In the king's personal bedroom, Delwyn said, "So, here's my room. Nothing too fancy, eh?" He couldn't be too further from the truth. There was a massive fireplace in the room, as well as a bed with gold-plated curtains and sheets. The walls were adorned with numerous paintings worth millions of Lien.

Ruby's jaws dropped as she said, "This place is even more amazing in real life."

Delwyn said, "It sure is. I usually keep the curtains open because who cares. This used to be only the King's bedroom. The Queen's bedroom was used until the reign of my great-grandfather, Byrn VIX. That's when he decided that he and his wife, the Queen back then, should sleep together instead. Now the Queen's bedroom is a guest room." He then pointed out the more modern amenities, such as a large TV and a computer desk with a brand new computer. "So, what's new?"

"Not much." The redhead sighed. "I had a few Code 99s over the past 2 weeks. Me, Yang, and Blake are all getting ready to take Intermediate Firefighter-EMT, while Weiss is registering for Advanced Firefighter-Paramedic. We begin in January." She then approached Delwyn from behind and whispered into his ear, "I've been thinking about you recently."

Delwyn blushed and replied, "Ruby... You..."

Ruby chuckled. "I gave us a lot of thought, and I've decided that we could try this. All I need to know is if you're okay with it."

Delwyn turned around and gave Ruby a kiss in response, starling the girl. He then pulled away and said, "Yes."

"Well then. Let's see, how can we make this work? You're the head of state of what recently became the most economically powerful nation in Remnant, and I'm just a huntress and a firefighter. 2 different worlds that usually don't meet indeed. But, I guess the power of lover or whatever can overcome that, right? Isn't that what fairytales tell us?"

* * *

Back at Weiss's apartment, Jaune had just completed moving in. He had unboxed and placed all of his various personal items in his new room over the course of 2 hours.

After dinner, Weiss and Jaune watched a movie on TV. The white-haired heiress said to Jaune, "The fire company elections are coming up real soon. Arthur's gonna be running for reelection as captain, while my dad and uncle are also running as well for reelection. Nobody's running against my dad, and only 1 person is running against my uncle and Arthur. Right now, the other big topic is if we should donate gear to some of the new companies in District 2."

Jaune replied, "Ah, good old politics. At Signal, there's a big fight right now over how much teachers should get paid. The full-time teaching staff is going on strike on the 13th. As for us part-timers, we'll be filling in the gaps."

"Good for those full-timers. We don't pay any of our teachers in any school enough damn Lien if you ask me." Weiss was then startled by a scream in the movie. "Agh! That scared the hell out of me!"

Then, she heard her pager go off for an EMS call. "Do you need to go?"

"Nah, the paid guys on the ambulance can handle it." She then muted her pager. As the movie entered a commercial break, Jaune got up to get a glass of water.

Weiss checked her phone and saw a text from someone she hadn't heard from since the year she participated in the Vytal Festival Tournament in Beacon. "Reese Chloris? Why did she text me?"

The text read, "no time 2 explain. call me."

Weiss then dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.

Reese, living in her hometown of Massalia in Mistral, tiredly answered and said in Mistralian, "Γειά σας, Ποιος είναι?"

"Reese," Weiss replied. "It's me, Weiss. You texted me earlier."

"Oh yeah! Sorry for answering in the wrong language, Weiss." She then took a deep breath. "Listen, something bad happened to my family, and I need your help."

"Was it that girl in Huntingdon in Vale?"

"No, she's not related to me. Maybe distantly through immigration, but not directly. You see, my brother was arrested in Vale for alleged drug trafficking. One of his friends wanted him to come to Vale to pick up what he thought were cosmetic supplies. They were not cosmetic supplies at all."

"Okay then, what do you want me to do about it?"

"To make matters worse, his friend was apparently picking up drugs for someone connected to the White Fang, and now they're threatening to kill me and my entire family for my brother's quote-unquote "failure." I'm scared, Weiss."

"Okay then, I'll head over to your place within 2 days. I'll schedule a flight to Mistral and my team will meet with you there." She then heard her pager go off, followed by the siren tone. "I gotta go for a fire call. I'll talk to you later, Reese." Weiss then hung up and said to Jaune, "I gotta go!" She then ran out of the apartment.

At 7:04, 2 minutes after the call came in, Weiss arrived. She quickly got her gear on and jumped aboard the rescue. The call was for a 3-car accident with possible entrapment and a fire at a busy intersection. Goodwill was also dispatched, as well as the brand new Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad 92 for the ambulance assignment.

As Weiss climbed aboard, Blake arrived and quickly put her gear on. As she did, Car 5, who was just arriving on scene, requested Enterprise to respond to the scene as well for another ambulance. Blake then hopped aboard the rear step of the rescue as it pulled out of the station.

At 7:07, Rescue 201 pulled up on the scene. Weiss quickly got out with an SCBA strapped to her back as one of the cars involved burned up. 3 police officers and 2 civilians had managed to pull the 2 occupants of the burning car out before the fire department arrived.

A firefighter tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Grab the blue line from the rescue, Weiss."

Weiss replied, "Got it." She ran over to the pump and grabbed a hand line that was coloured blue for convenience. She said to the pump operator, "Charge this as soon as I stretch it to the car!"

Meanwhile, Blake was hauling a box of cribbing to another car where the 5 occupants were trapped. She put on her gloves before she laid out a green tarp to set down equipment on in the street. She said to another firefighter, "What do you want me to grab next?"

"Grab the airbags and the ram, probie! I'll grab the cutters!" He then ran back to the rescue and opened a compartment containing the cutters and spreaders.

At the burning car, Weiss and another firefighter signalled the pump operator to charge the hand line as they closed in on the fully-involved car. "Stay upwind! If the wind shifts directions, stop what you're doing and put your mask on!" The 2 firefighters then felt their hand line fill with water. Weiss quickly opened up the nozzle, and she felt the 'kick' of the hose as water sprayed onto the car.

As they wet down the car, a police officer screamed, "The 2 patients from the burning car are going into cardiac arrest!"

Another voice screamed, "Call every company in District 2 to the scene! We got an 18-person van involved here, and 4 are in cardiac arrest!"

Once the car fire was under control, Weiss immediately dropped the line to assist 2 police officers and a firefighter-paramedic in doing CPR on one of the people from the burning car. As she did compressions, the medic administered drugs through an IV.

Meanwhile, Blake had just pulled the roof off of the 5-person car after assisting with the extrication. All 5 patients were pulled out immediately. As Blake lowered a bloodied patient with an amputated right arm onto a backboard, the patient began seizing. She said, "He's seizing up! Something's wrong!" The patient then threw up onto Blake, covering her face and lower body in vomit and blood. "Agh! Fuck!" Blake turned away, coughed, and threw up on the ground as 2 firefighters rushed to her and ripped her helmet off. They then poured bottled water on her to try and clean her up.

"We got a contaminated firefighter," one of them shouted. He then helped Blake take her coat off as she staggered to the rear step of Rescue 201 before collapsing on the ground and hitting her head on the rear step, cracking her skull and making her lose consciousness.

Yang, who had ridden on the truck and was tending to a patient with minor injuries, immediately ran over and shouted, "Blake! Oh my God!" A whole bunch of firefighters followed her to help their fallen comrade.

Blake was lifted up by Yang and 4 other firefighters, who all noticed the giant gash in her head from where she hit the rear step. They then lifted her onto a backboard and rushed her to one of the ambulances that had just pulled up.

* * *

_**December 3, 2021**_

Blake didn't wake back up until 10 in the morning afterwards. As she woke up she groggily said, "What... Where..."

A doctor said to her, "Hello, Miss Belladonna. You suffered a linear skull fracture yesterday at that bad accident." He then pointed to news coverage of the accident on the TV news.

The headline read: 10 DIE AND 15 HURT IN 3-VEHICLE ACCIDENT, OVER 300 FIREFIGHTERS RESPOND

Blake replied, "How is it?"

"We determined it's not serious enough to warrant surgery, but you won't be fighting fires until December 25. If it wasn't for your unlocked aura, you'd probably be out a week or 2 longer."

"Where is everyone? Only Yang and Sun are here." She looked at them.

Yang replied, "Weiss and Ruby had to go to Mistral. Doc, you need to not hear this next part. This is a matter of national security."

The doctor nodded and stepped out. Sun said, "Reese Chloris, the girl whose team you fought years ago and became friends with, was threatened by the White Fang. It's hard to explain. Weiss and Ruby are gonna be in Mistral protecting her until the 7th. Their plane left this morning."

Blake replied in confusion, "What? Why Reese?"

"Her brother was conned into smuggling drugs for someone connected to them and was caught in Vale," Yang replied. "She's really scared. I would have went, but I decided to stay here with you."

Sun then turned to the doctor by opening the door and said, "You can come back in now, doc."

"Thank you," He replied.

* * *

"So," Weiss said to Ruby as they drove to Reese's house in the Mistralian countryside. "You and Delwyn are now a couple?"

"Indeed," Ruby replied, smiling and feeling giddy about her and the king. "I guess I just warmed up to him. You know, the king is kinda like me in a sense. We both are kind of socially awkward, and we're both young and put in a role where we wield a lot of power, me as a Lieutenant in the military, and he as, well, you know. So, how's Jaune?"

Weiss blushed. "He's... Well... He's great." She then uneasily laughed. "I'm trying not to gush over him like some 13-year-old girl who just got her first boyfriend or something."

"Awww, c'mon. You're so cute when you show emotions like that." Ruby laughed.

"I'm not... Ah, forget it." Weiss then turned up the radio.

Her GPS squawked out, "In 0.2 miles, turn right, then, turn left at the next intersection."

"Hey Weiss, can you pull over? I gotta take a piss."

"Fine." Weiss pulled the car over in a densely-forested area.

Ruby got out of the car and said, "Thanks." She then knelt down to do her "business." As she did, Weiss received another call, this time from her dad.

"Hello?"

"Hey there, my beautiful daughter. Just wanted to drop by and say, oh I don't know, **where the hell are you?"**

Weiss sighed. "Dad, listen to me, me and Ruby headed over to Mistral because one of our friends was threatened by the White Fang. It's hard to explain."

"You should have told me first. Anyways, I don't want you getting hurt or killed. I also don't want you getting yourself in trouble. Be safe, and don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"I'll try- I mean, I'll do it. Bye." Weiss then hung up.


	22. Season 2: Part 2

_**December 4, 2020**_

Yang, watching the weather reports on TV with George in the morning, who had begun to move in to Yang and Ruby's apartment, saw that a blizzard was predicted to hit the city on the 5th. As the announcer babbled on, Yang said to George, "Looks like we'll be snowed in for a while. They're talking at least 7 inches of snow hitting us. We already have 2 inches on the ground."

"Oh boy," George replied. "I can only imagine the calls we'll get when that blizzard hits."

"You bet." Yang then gave George a kiss on the cheek. "You bet." She then felt her phone vibrate. She answered, "Hello?"

"Hey Yang," Ruby replied from Reese's house with Weiss. "Me and Weiss made it alright to Reese's place in Mistral."

"Good. How is it so far?"

"No suspicious activity yet. We're prepared for anything, though."

"Good. Anyways, here at home, we're gonna be getting a blizzard tomorrow. You're gonna miss out on all the calls." Yang laughed. "All the lift assists, people slipping on ice, car accidents, chimney and furnace fires, roof collapses, and so on. It's totally gonna be fun." Yang's tone of voice in the last sentence was sarcastic in nature.

"Wow. Over here in Mistral, we only have light snowfall, nothing major." Then, Reese and her younger 16-year-old sister came in from outside. Ruby turned to them and said, "How was your little snowball fight?"

"Awesome," Reese's younger sister exclaimed. "I totally won!"

"Yeah right," Reese replied, laughing. "You and Weiss should join us."

Ruby replied, "Don't worry, we will." She then turned back to her phone. "I just got invited to go pelt snowballs at Reese and her sister with Weiss. We're totally gonna kick their asses."

"Awww yeah. That's what I'm talking about, sis! Anyways, I'll talk to ya later. I love you, sis. Bye."

"I love you too, sis. Bye." Ruby then hung up and called to Weiss. "Weiss! Come on! We're gonna go outside and throw snowballs!"

Weiss excitedly said, "Did someone say snowballs?! Count me the hell in!"

* * *

At 1, Blake and Sun arrived at Blake's apartment from the hospital. Blake had a bandage at the spot where she had hit her head, but other than that, she seemed fine.

Sun asked her, "Got a headache?"

"Real funny," Blake sarcastically replied. "No, I don't. Anyways, I'm gonna go into work tomorrow from 8 to 12 at midnight to help make up for the time I missed. Rip in pieces my eyes. At the same time, I'm gonna be dispatching during a freaking blizzard, so whoopee."

"Oh man, I almost forgot about that! I gotta go do hunting training tomorrow from 10 to 8. It's gonna suck out there in the freezing cold." Sun then gave Blake a kiss. "Wanna warm up?"

Blake smiled and said, "Of course you'd put it that way. Sure." She then giggled and returned the kiss. "Meet me in my bedroom."

Then, Sun was interrupted by a phone call, annoying Blake. "Hold on, I gotta take this."

Blake sighed and said, "Sure. I'll be in my bedroom when you're done."

* * *

Later in the day, after dinner, the 3 huntresses were telling stories around a T.V. Ruby had just finished her story about a mission her mother had gone on where she saved the 15 survivors of a plane crash from Grimm.

Now it was Weiss' turn. "This story was passed down from my dad. He was directly involved in this story with my uncle, my mom, and my grandpa. It all began in 1999..."

* * *

**_August 6, 1999_**

Hermann was reading the newspaper in the Schnee residence. He looked at the stock market section as Winter, then just a few years old, was doodling in a colouring book. "Daddy," she said. "How did I do?" She showed Hermann a picture she had haphazardly covered.

"It looks great, honey," Hermann replied, smiling at his daughter's work.

Genoveva then came running down the stairs with Hermann's pager and her pager, saying, "Hermann! Hermann! There's a 3rd alarm fire at a dump complex! Vigilant's going!"

Hermann replied, "Got it." He then turned to a servant and said, "Me and my wife will be out for a call. Take care of Winter while we're gone, okay?"

The servant nodded and said, "Yes, sir. Good luck."

Hermann gave Winter a kiss and said, "Me and Mommy have to go to a fire, okay? We'll be back."

"Okay, Daddy." Winter smiled, wondering what it was like to fight a fire.

When they got to the firehouse about 3 and a half minutes later, Truck 201 had just begun to leave with a full crew. Hermann and Genoveva quickly put their gear on and jumped onto Rescue 201.

About 18 and a half minutes later, they pulled up to a burning building, with the dump behind it also ablaze. The smell of the fire was acrid, and the smoke was pitch black.

Hermann and Genoveva got out wearing airpacks, but no masks. Hermann said, "Honey, go pull the lines. I'll mask up and start hitting the fire with a 2 1/2 line."

* * *

"...The fire went to 6 alarms. As it turns out, a guy had bought the old rubber recycling site and began illegally dumping chemical products there. A whole bunch of firefighters got cancer from the fire, such as my grandpa, and died, like my grandpa."

Reese said, shocked, "Oh my God. That's horrible! Did the government do anything about it?"

"They sure did after the firefighters marched and protested," Weiss replied. "My dad and uncle were at the protest in their turnout gear, waving their helmets around and shouting, "No more cancers!" Vale finally began passing environmental laws, and medical research began on developing vaccines and treatments for different types of cancers."

"Damn. Here, we have volunteers, but they're only in the small towns. Most of the cities have entirely paid departments. My town has volunteers, though I don't know much about them. Haven Academy and Sanctum Academy have volunteer firefighters as well."

"Just like Signal and Beacon," Ruby replied. "Anyways, what's your story for the night, Reese?"

Suddenly, they were all interrupted by the sound of breaking glass from the back of the house.

Ruby grabbed her personal pistol since Crescent Rose was upstairs and cocked it. "They're here," she whispered.

Then, a loud voice shouted, "Where are you, Reese Chloris?!" It was followed by the cocking of several guns.

Ruby got up and began quietly walking in the direction of the voices, making sure not to make much noise. Then, she rounded a corner, pointing her gun, and fired at the intruders.

The intruders fired back, causing her to retreat. Weiss and Reese soon joined her and fired at the intruders from the corner as Reese's younger sister got up from her bed and grabbed a shotgun upstairs.

Then, Reese's younger sister charged down the stairs and fired 3 blasts of an 8-gauge shotgun at the intruders. She screamed, "GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR HOUSE!"

Then, the dust settled, and Ruby turned on the lights. Reese ran to the phone to call 111, Mistral's emergency number, and Weiss looked at the dead and injured intruders.

Only 1 intruder survived. He said to Weiss as she walked over to him, "You human bastards... Especially you, you snow-haired freak..." He then held his gun up in the air, aimed down at his forehead, and shot himself, splattering Weiss in his blood.

Weiss immediately backed away and gagged. She yelled, "That fucker just shot himself, God damn it!"

* * *

_**December 5, 2020**_

Yang's job decided to cancel work for the day due to the blizzard. As a result, Yang went to the firehouse at 7 to standby for the entire day. She was joined by at least 12 other Vigilant firefighters and the 2 paid guys. George stood by at the Goodwill firehouse for the day with 6 other Goodwill firefighters.

Outside, the wind howled and the snow fell hard. Inside, Yang drank coffee and watched T.V. A firefighter said next to her, "I'm glad I ain't out there, at least without turnout gear on."

"You can say that-" Then, the pager tones went off. "Again..."

As the dispatcher squawked out an EMS call for a man unconscious after a fall, the 2 paid guys and 3 volunteers walked out to the truck bay to get aboard Ambulance 201.

Alfred walked over to Yang and said, "Say, Yang, where's the rest of your little group?"

"Your niece Weiss and Ruby are in Mistral and Blake is working at Fire Alarm from 8 to midnight. Plus, Blake can't respond to calls until the 25th due to her head injury."

Winter then walked in, wearing a Vigilant Fire Company sweater and a winter coat while holding her 10-month-old daughter. "It's horrible out there." Behind her, her 4-year-old son poked out from behind her legs. "My husband's at work, so I brought the kiddos along. Be sure to watch your language." Winter then laughed.

Her son walked up to Yang and said, "Yang-Yang!"

"Hey there, kiddo!" Yang gave him a high-five. "You must be pretty happy that your mommy brought you to the firehouse today, huh?"

"Yeah!" He was beaming with energy. "Where's Ruby, Auntie Weiss, and Blake?"

"Her and your Auntie Weiss are in Mistral helping a friend." Yang wouldn't dare try to explain exactly what was going on with Reese to a young child. "Blake is at work from 8 to midnight."

"Wow! That stinks!"

Yang laughed and said, "It sure does. Imagine if you went to school for that long."

"Nooo!"

Then, the pager tones went off again, this time followed by the siren tones. Since the siren control panel was located in the rec room, it sounded like a very loud bang when it clicked on and off to power the siren.

Winter calmed down her daughter and left her with a member of the Ladies Auxiliaries she was close to. Yang said to Winter's son, "I gotta run, little dude. Me and your mom will be back eventually."

"Bye, Yang-Yang!"

The now 14 volunteer firefighters left at the station ran to their gear and put it on. The call was for a car into a building. Winter jumped into the driver's seat of Rescue 201 while Yang quickly grabbed the seat next to her.

Winter said, "Well that's the first time I've seen a probie in the officer's seat in years."

Yang laughed. She then radioed, "Rescue 201 to Fire Alarm."

Surprisingly, Blake answered back. "Rescue 201."

"We're en route with a crew of 9." Yang then said to Winter, "That was Blake!"

"Oh yeah. Too bad she's stuck working at Fire Alarm in this shitty weather."

* * *

Back in Mistral, the team had not gotten any sleep as a result of the failed raid by the White Fang. Ruby and Weiss were packing up and getting ready to head back to Vale.

Reese said as she helped Ruby pack clothes, "Thank you guys again for helping me. Me and the rest of Team ABRN should come over to Vale one of these days."

"Don't mention it," Ruby replied. "We'd love to have you guys over."

Weiss then called to Ruby, "Vale City is getting hit by a blizzard! We'll have to delay our flight to 8 at night!"

"Got it!" Ruby the muttered to herself, "Fucking blizzards..."

"You know, we haven't had a blizzard in my area for years. Must be the slightly warmer climate."

"You lucky bastards." Ruby then zipped up her bag. "Well, looks like me and Weiss will be stuck here then for a few more hours. Wanna play that new video game you got last week?"

"Oh yeah! Sure thing, Ruby. I'll win, too, just like last time."

"Yeah, right!"


	23. Season 2: Part 3

Rescue 201 returned to quarters at 8:41. Truck 201 had returned from the scene at 8:23, but was diverted to respond to a medical call to assist Ambulance 201 with an obese patient.

As Yang took her gear off, Winter's son, Hans, ran up to Yang and said, "Yang-Yang! How was it?"

"The man who crashed his car is doing okay," Yang replied. The man had been badly injured, but his injuries were not life-threatening. "The truck went to another call."

'You guys are busy," Hans said.

Winter then said, "Hans, come over to the rec room."

"Yes, mommy." Hans then ran over to her mom.

Yang followed him into the rec room, walking over to the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee. As she did, the pager tones went off again, this time for another EMS call. A few volunteers who had shown up when the trucks were out walked out to the apparatus bay to get on the rescue to take the call, since Ambulance 201 was still at the hospital.

She sat down back in her chair, watching the news. On the TV, there was a news report about the arrest of a businessman for fraud. Yang said, "Of course." She then got a phone call from George. "Hello, my love?"

"Why hello," George replied, having just finished cleaning dishes at the small Goodwill firehouse. "I heard those calls for Vigilant. I stayed at the station when we went to assist for that accident to clean some stuff."

"Aww man. I was looking for you there. Anyways, how is your blizzard day?"

"Well, I went to a medical call at like 7. We've had about 3 calls so far. What time do you want to meet?"

"How about 6 at my place? I'll be in my bedroom." Yang smiled and laughed. "Be ready."

"Of course. Anyways, I gotta go. See ya later. I love you, Yang."

"I love you, George. Bye." Yang then hung up. As she did, the truck returned.

Then, Alfred walked in. He said, "Sorry I'm late. I had some SDC business to take care of. Anyways, I need some people to go out and wash down the truck. It's all dirty and caked with snow."

Yang raised her hand and said, "Count me in, Lieutenant!" She then got up and walked out to the truck bay to grab a cleaning hose.

* * *

At the Fire Alarm Office, Blake was swamped with radio traffic. Another dispatcher had to join her in order to deal with the amount of activity going on.

After acknowledging a unit's response on the radio, she said to the other dispatcher, "Can you fill in for me for a sec? I gotta run to the bathroom really bad."

The other dispatcher replied, "Got it."

Blake got up and ran to the bathroom, thinking, _"Thank God! I almost pissed my pants!" _As she ran into a stall, pulled her pants down, and did her business, she heard her phone ring for a text. She fumbled through her pants to get her phone and looked at it.

It was from Sun. It read, "hey Blakey i cant make it to dinner on sunday" Another text read, "Sages dad died &amp; we have to go back to Mistral for 3 days 4 the funeral. i'm leaving tomorrow"

Blake texted back, "Sorry to hear about that. Ill go with you to the airport if i can"

"of course why couldn't you?"

"security or whatevs maybe" She also wrote, "anyways i gtg do more dispatch work. luv u"

"luv u too Blake have a great day my beautiful girlfriend"

Blake smiled and held the phone to her chest, saying to herself, "Oh, Sun. I couldn't have asked for anyone better."

She then cleaned up and walked out to wash her hands. As she did, a woman rushed into the bathroom and said, "Blake! Hurry it up! There's a major incident in District 2!"

"What's up?!"

"Some sort of explosion at the Locust Theatre! We're getting 911 calls by the dozens!"

"Got it! I'll be right out!" Blake quickly finished and ran out of the bathroom, fearing the White Fang had struck again.

* * *

At Vigilant Fire Company, everyone was listening to the unfolding chaos at the theatre from the radios. By now, North Beacon, South Beacon, Beacon, Friendship, and Atlesian companies were responding to the fire. It was 4 1/2 minutes in.

Yang said, "On what alarm are we supposed to go on?"

"If they call it," Winter replied. "We'll be going on the 4th as opposed to the 2nd as we used to be before all the new companies went into service, assuming that all District 2 companies are in service, which I doubt due to the storm."

"Speaking of that," another firefighter said, "They just announced a 2nd and 3rd alarm simultaneously."

On the speakers of the apparatus bay, the paging channel buzzed with the 24 tones of 11 fire companies and 2 chiefs, followed by a dispatcher announcing the info of the call. To their surprise, Vigilant's tones also played out due to the fact that so many other companies were already out of service on other calls.

Everyone immediately rushed to grab their gear and get on the trucks, which had by now all returned. Yang put her gear on and ran to get on the truck, managing to get in the second-to-last seat. As she sat down, she stretched her legs to pull up her hip boots before grabbing the straps of her seat's SCBA and clipping them in. As the truck rolled out the door with a full crew, she put her gloves on and said, "Here we go again..."

At 9:17, Truck 201 arrived on scene with Rescue 201 and Ambulance 201. By now, smoke was rising from the theatre, and a mass of people crowded the streets ahead of them. Firefighters were working on the roof, cutting holes to let the heat vent.

Yang stood outside with Winter and watched the theatre go up in smoke as the snow continued to fall. She said, "Winter, think about all the people that may be trapped in there still. My God..."

Then, an officer said, "You 2, come over here and grab a ladder! We need you 2 to help set up an entryway to the second floor from the alleyway on the right side! We already broke a window over there to let smoke out!"

Yang and Winter walked over and grabbed a 45-foot extension ladder from an equipment staging area. They then ran it to the right-side alleyway next to the theatre. As they did, several other firefighters followed them.

As they set up the ladder, a frantic radio message went out, saying, "Incident Command to all firefighters on the roof, get off the roof now! Get off the roof now!"

Yang said, "That's not good." She then raised the ladder up to the second floor of the theatre.

Winter said, "Everyone, mask up now. There's too much smoke up there." She then took her helmet off to put her mask on.

Yang, after masking up, climbed up the ladder first, carrying an axe and a flashlight she had gotten from another firefighter. When she stepped onto the second floor, she turned her flashlight on and yelled, "Anyone up here?!"

Winter and another firefighter followed her, both of them carrying a hose line. Winter said, "If there's anyone up here, they're probably dead by this point. Now, firefighters on the first floor said that the stairwell was blocked by heavy flames. I assume that was where the fire started. Yang, follow me and this other guy to wherever the stairwell is."

Yang replied, "Got it." The 3 of them walked around the second floor, looking for the doors to the stairwell. Then, they stumbled upon it.

Winter said, "Feel it first."

Yang nodded and felt the door with the back of her hand. She said, "How is this door not on fire yet?! It's super hot!"

Then, Winter suddenly looked up at the ceiling and said, "Everyone, back away! Now!" All 3 of them ran to the other side of the room, heeding Winter's advice.

Said advice couldn't have come any sooner. A part of the ceiling caved in and crushed the door to the stairwell, causing flames to shoot out. The 3rd firefighter immediately opened up his hand line and began spraying down the wall of flames approaching the 3 of them as 4 other firefighters ran to them, having been searching the second floor when the ceiling fell.

One of them said, "One of our guys was buried by some debris! We gotta get him!"

Winter replied, "I'll radio it in. Yang, you and that other guy from Excellence will go join those 4 guys to help get the buried guy out."

Yang nodded. The 6 of them then ran to the area where the firefighter had been buried, the firefighter from Excellence spraying water at the flames near them to keep them from being burned.

When they got to him, his head was sticking out from the debris. Yang and the Excellence firefighter began removing debris as the 4 other firefighters prepared themselves for pulling their comrade out. After several minutes of throwing debris away, the 4 firefighters pulled the trapped firefighter out of the debris and dragged him back to the window where they had all entered before. As they did, the smoke began to get thicker and blacker, indicating the fire was rapidly spreading.

Yang hoisted the injured firefighter onto her back and climbed onto the ladder. As she climbed down slowly, she could see Winter begin to follow her.

Eventually, all 8 firefighters made it out. As the last one reached the ground, a flashover suddenly engulfed the second floor, causing Yang to be startled and slip and fall onto the pavement. She said, "Agh, fuck!" She looked around and checked her hands. "Well, I don't think I broke anything, at least."

Winter walked up to her and asked, "Need a hand?"

"Of course." Yang grabbed Winter's hand and stood back up. "Wanna go get new bottles for our SCBAs?"

"Sure. You did a good job today, probie." Winter patted Yang on the back.

* * *

The fire went to 5 alarms. At the time of the explosion, the theatre was hosting a movie in the 4th stage, located in the back of the building. The building, the Locust Theatre, was built in 1902 as a combination stage and screen theatre. It had a large main stage in the centre as well as 3 smaller stages plus a front office section arranged in a cross format. It was essentially the first multiplex theatre in Vale, if not all of Remnant.

The fire had consumed the 4th stage entirely and part of the first stage. According to witnesses, the explosion had come from the front of the seating section, and accounts of the explosion indicate that incendiaries of some kind were used alongside what was possibly a suicide bomb vest.

Vigilant was released alongside all companies with the exception of those that were on the first alarm assignment at 4:23 P.M. By then, the city had continued to be swamped by calls from the snowstorm, and Vigilant had missed 15 calls in their first due, including a Code 99 that had destroyed a convenience store and damaged a few apartments and 2 car accidents that led to 3 fatalities.

At the theatre, the death toll was counted at 64 and the number of injured was counted at over 400. Among the injured were 8 firefighters.

* * *

At 5:30, Ruby and Weiss came over to the firehouse, having arrived back in Vale at 4. Blake had arrived after work.

Yang was telling them about the explosion, which was now all over the news. Blake said, "It had to be the White Fang. They've made threats against the Locust Theatre before." She then shook her head. "This world has gone crazy. It's only a matter of time before the White Fang does something that kills hundreds, if not thousands."

Ruby replied, "Tell me about it. Their attacks are only making faunus hatred worse now. I see people posting racist shit all the time on social media about how they want all faunus in Vale City and the Kingdom of Vale to be deported and shit. Do they not realise over a third of this city alone is faunus? Did we learn NOTHING from Gris Manchette?"

"It seems sadly so," Weiss replied. "Surprisingly, my family is not at the head of this hatred this time. My dad reprimanded one of his executives for making some nasty remarks online recently. To be fair, he would have done the same thing even 10 years ago, but for different reasons."

"It's all a cycle," Blake said. "The White Fang promotes acts of violence to make humans hate faunus, and then the White Fang recruits faunus by pointing out said human hate. They want humans to be racist so they can feed their propaganda machine. I fear if they do do something that kills thousands, we'll see a wave of hate against my kind never seen since the days of the Authoritarianist rule in Vacuo."

Yang patted Blake on the back and said, "Don't worry. We'll make sure it never gets to that. Only fools will hate faunus when they see you and all the other faunus in the VCFD in your firefighting gear at these attacks. If there's one thing all Valeanians look up to, it's firefighters, especially volunteers."

Winter pointed at the TV and said, "Hey guys look! There was something in Azimuth today!"

A news announcer said, "State media in Azimuth are confirming reports that a suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of the State Economic Planning Committee, a 5-storey building in the capital of Azimuth, Kankrina, killing 12, including the bomber, and injuring 32. It is believed the White Fang is behind this attack, as well as the one that just happened at the Locust Theatre in Vale."


	24. Season 2: Part 4

_**December 27, 2020**_

Jaune and Weiss emerged from her bedroom in her apartment, hurriedly dressed. Weiss said, "We gotta use that wand more often."

"Of course," Jaune replied. "It makes sex a hell of a lot better." Then, Jaune got a phone call. He quickly grabbed his cellphone from his pocket and answered it, saying, "Hello?"

It was one of Jaune's sisters. Her name was Sacha, and she was the youngest of the Arc children. She was at the time 19 and in Beacon Academy. "Jaune, est-ce que je peux te demander une question importante?" (A/N: Thank you, CHOPSWEE, for the translation.)

"Oui, Sacha." Jaune switched to Vacuouan. "Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

Weiss wondered what the two were talking about, since she only had a rudimentary understanding of Vacuouan.

Sacha replied, switching back to Valeanian, "Well, my National History teacher may have done some illegal and fucked up stuff to a student."

Jaune immediately paused, saying, "What do you mean illegal, Sacha?"

"Well, one of my classmates said that when she taught at Signal 4 years back, she raped her."

"Wait, what?! Raped her?!"

"She still substitutes at Signal, and she thinks she may be targeting her younger brother now." Sacha then looked behind her to make sure nobody was listening in. "I've been trying to gather evidence these past 4 days to bust her. I could use some help, frère."

Weiss said to herself, "Oh my God..."

Jaune replied, "Okay then. I'll help. What is her name?"

"Rouge Smith. Visit me tomorrow at 4 PM. I'll be in my team's dorm room. You know what team I'm on, right?"

"Of course I do, Sacha. You're on Team FRST." (A/N: Pronounced "frost.")

"Awwww, thank you, frère. I'll see you tomorrow. Je t'aime."

"Je t'aime, soeur. Au revoir." Jaune then hung up.

Weiss was shocked. "Who's the rapist?"

"Smith. Rouge Smith. Wanna come with me to meet Sacha at 4?"

Weiss shrugged and replied, "Can't. I got firehouse stuff to do tomorrow. The end of the year company ball is on the 30th."

"Oh yeah!" Jaune then smiled and hugged Weiss from behind. "I can't wait to see you in that dress."

"Awww, thanks." Weiss replied by giving him a kiss. "Now, I want you and Sacha to get that asshole of a teacher in prison eventually."

"Oh we will, Weiss." He then looked ahead. "We will."

* * *

Later that day, at around 7 P.M., Team RWBY and Ren were at the station, helping set up the ballroom for the company ball. It was held on the day before New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve and New Years Day are celebrated in Vale as Independence Day and Constitution Day because on December 30, 1480, Berwyn the Great declared Vale to be an independent kingdom, making it the last of the 4 kingdoms to be formed, and on January 1, 1650, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Vale, signed and ratified 20 days before, came into effect, making Vale the first kingdom to place limits on the power of its monarch and the first proto-democratic state in Remnant. These nights were infamous for the many illegal fireworks displays and arsons that caused structure fires across the entire city, and sometimes even in the forests outside the city wall!

As Ren hammered nails into a board, Weiss said, "So, how's Nora and the baby?"

"Doing pretty well," Ren replied. "Leona's doing baby stuff, like making messes, playing with toys, drinking breast milk, and whatnot. Can you hand me that piece of wood over there?"

Weiss gave Ren said piece of wood and said, "So, now that the baby's 2 months old, you'll be available a bit more?"

"Indeed. I got the 12-hour staffing requirement waived for November and December, but in January, I'll start doing it again. How many hours have you done?"

"About 24 this month. This means that as of today, I have done 256 hours of duty staffing at this firehouse this year. That's pretty high up there for me."

Then, their pagers went off. Ruby said, "Here we go..." As the siren tones played out, everyone dropped what they were doing and ran to the fire poles.

Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Ren slid down the pole to the rescue and ambulance bays, while Blake slid down the pole to the truck bay. As they did, the info of the call was relayed to them over the radio. It was a call for a delivery truck that crashed into a restaurant in North Vigilant's first due.

After getting their gear on, Weiss started up the rescue, sitting in the driver's seat. Another firefighter got in the officer's seat. Yang, Ren, and 2 other firefighters sat down in the cab. Ruby and 2 other firefighters stepped up on the rear step and grabbed the railing above the hosebed of the rescue.

Blake sat in the back of the truck, joining 9 other firefighters, including Hermann, who was driving. Within 2 minutes, all 3 trucks were out the door, and several other firefighters who had missed them grabbed their gear and began driving in their personal vehicles or hailing taxis to respond to the scene, including Theresa and Denis, who jumped into a taxi together.

As Theresa showed the driver her firefighter ID card, Denis passed a 10 Lien bill and said, "Even though we get free rides for calls because of our ID cards, here's some Lien for you anyways."

The driver smiled and said, "Thanks, pal. My father was a vollie for a company in downtown for a long time. I never got into it due to work getting in the way, though. You 2 look young."

"Well, I'm 13, and Trace here is 15. We've only been in the fire department for a few months." Denis began clipping in his jacket as Theresa checked her phone as the taxi sped away.

At 7:08, the truck, rescue, and ambulance arrived at the scene. By now, both of North Vigilant's engines and their captain were also on scene. Being a new company, North Vigilant's fire trucks were all purchased used, and their gear was a used assortment of bunker gear, high boots and long coats, F1 helmets, traditional helmets, wool coats and yellow leggings, and even the occasional brass or cork helmet.

Weiss said to Yang as they got out, "I can't even tell that they're all from the same company. Every fireman over there practically has their own unique gear. I know we donated about 5 sets of gear to them. Did George's company give any away?"

"He doesn't know to what companies specifically," Yang replied as she grabbed a medical bag. "But he says Goodwill gave about 20 sets of old gear away. I assume North Vigilant got a few, given the yellow leggings, wool coats and cork helmets here. He says Goodwill hasn't used brass helmets since the 90s, so I think they got those from other companies."

As Ruby opened a compartment to grab a shovel, the taxi carrying Theresa and Denis arrived. They quickly got out and split up to go help out the other firefighters.

Weiss walked over and saw 2 brand new North Vigilant firefighters attempting to clear some debris with their own hands in gloves. Weiss said, "Hey, both of you! Grab a shovel and don't use your fucking hands!"

The 2 firefighters turned around and nodded, running over to one of the North Vigilant engines to grab shovels. Weiss then began shoveling away debris by herself.

* * *

After the call, Denis walked up to Theresa as she put her gear away. He seemed to be flustered to an extent. He asked, "Hey, Tracy, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," the young, short-haired blonde replied. "What's up, Denis?"

"Do you wanna... See a movie or something on the 2nd of January? If you don't mind, that is."

Theresa smiled. "Sure thing. What movie do you wanna see?"

"I was thinking something with action like Backstroke of the West."

"Okay then," Theresa said and smiled. "By the way, are you going to the company ball?"

"Sure," Denis replied. He became flustered. "I'll be there. Are you?"

"Of course," the girl replied. "I love dancing." She then grabbed her cellphone from her locker and put it in her pocket. "I gotta run. See you later."

Denis waved and said, "Goodbye."

As Theresa walked away, she said to herself, "Here we go again..."

Denis breathed a sigh of relief, having previously feared he would be rejected.

Then, a voice startled him. "How's it going?"

Denis yelped and turned around to find Yang. "Oh, Yang, it's you."

Yang smiled and said, "I have a feeling that you have a crush on our little friend there. Don't lie to me. I saw how worried you were when talking to her."

Denis blushed and replied, "A crush? No way!"

"She has a boyfriend right now," Yang replied. "Buuuut... She's starting to lose her attraction to him, so you may have a chance."

Denis replied, "Whatever. I gotta go." He then walked away.

Yang thought to herself, _"That boy has massive balls to try and make moves on an older girl, especially at their age where a year can mean a completely different person, let alone two and a half. At least with me and George, we're more stable."_

* * *

_**December 28, 2020**_

At 4, Jaune met up with his sister in an empty office at Beacon. Jaune locked the door behind them as he asked, "Now, Sacha, you know that if these allegations are false, you and your friend will be expelled from Beacon and court-martialed for misconduct and making false accusations against an officer. You both could go to military prison for several years if found guilty. Tell me now if they are fake."

Sacha emphatically replied, "No! They are not! I have proof, frère." She then placed a Scroll phone on the table. "My friend left this on recording audio one day several years ago during one instance where Professor Smith raped her. I really don't want you to listen to this, but if it will remove all doubt, so be it."

Jaune looked at the Scroll. "Well, it is old enough to be from several years ago. Let's listen."

Sacha nodded and played the audio recording.

As the recording went on, Jaune took notes of what was happening. Then, as the professor began moaning, Jaune stopped taking notes and stared at the Scroll in horror.

The recording went on for a full 47 minutes. After it ended, Jaune said, "What. The. Fuck."

"I told you. It was horrible to listen to." Sacha then put the Scroll away.

Jaune said, "Where is Rouge Smith? We need to confront her."

"She's at her office in building 12."

"I'm gonna go get Ozpin and Goodwitch. Come with me."

* * *

At 6, after the recording finished, an obviously distressed Glynda looked at Jaune and Sacha, shaking her head.

Ozpin said, "You can't get more definitive proof than that, other than video, which would be even more sickening. We need to confront Professor Smith now. She's still in her office in Building 12. I'll contact your friend, Sacha Arc."

Glynda said, "Pardon my language, but..." She then sighed. "This is soooo fucked up on so many levels." She then wiped her forehead. "I can't believe we didn't catch this bastard sooner."

* * *

At 6:37, Jaune, Sacha, and Sacha's friend Julia all walked into Professor Smith's office. She said, "Why hello there, girls. Sacha, I assume the gentlemen standing next to you is your brother, Jaune. I have heard very good things about you, Lieutenant Arc."

"Cut the shit," Jaune replied. "We know you've been sexually abusing male and female students at Signal and Beacon, Professor. Headmaster Ozpin and Assistant Headmaster Goodwitch know, too."

Rouge's facial expression quickly changed. "I... I don't understand..."

Sacha then said, "Me and Julia have the audio recording she took of you raping her back at Signal. Face it, Professor, it's over. You lose."

Rouge then stood up and said, "I... Well... You know, I was touched myself. When I was in Signal, I had a male teacher who showed me everything. It felt wrong, yet it also felt right. I just wanted to experience that again, this time from his perspective."

Julia then suddenly pulled a gun, shocking Jaune and Sacha. Jaune said, "Julia, put the gun down! She needs to be kept alive!" He then drew Crocea Mors from its sheath, just in case she did anything.

"You fucked up my life," Julia sternly told the Professor. "You fucked up my little brother's life, and you fucked up many other lives, you sick freak of nature."

The professor said, "Child, put the gun down."

Sacha replied, "Quiet, you!" She then turned to Julia. "Julia, just put the gun down, man."

"Because of you, I have no life to live for! You took it away from me and murdered it!" She then put the gun to her head and began crying. "YOU DID THIS!"

Sacha screamed, "No!"

Then, a gunshot was heard, and Julia fell to the floor, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the side of the head.

Jaune was startled and said, "Woah! That was... Wow..."

Sacha grabbed Julia and screamed, "NO! JULIA!"

The professor tried to run, but Jaune stood in the doorway, holding Crocea Mors to her neck. He said, "You're not going anywhere."

* * *

At her apartment, Weiss was eating a late dinner at 7. As she got up to refill a glass of water, she suddenly yelped.

Pyrrha's ghost was back. She said, "Sorry I haven't dropped by in a while, Weiss."

"My God, you scared me!" Weiss then sat back down. "What's new in that afterlife of yours?"

"Nothing much. Say, I sense that Jaune was involved in something dangerous at Beacon."

"Wouldn't be surprised." Weiss then ate some food. "Jaune's sister, Sacha, had to talk to him-" She then swallowed her food. "About a professor that may be a pedophile or something. Sacha says her friend was raped by Professor Rouge Smith when she was in Signal, and now Mrs. Smith is going after her younger brother."

Pyrrha was surprised. "The pedo's a girl? I never had Mrs. Smith as a professor."

"Yep. Me neither. I wonder how Jaune and Sacha are doing..."

* * *

_**December 29, 2020**_

The Vale City Daily Sun, in its over-the-top tabloid fashion, ran a newspaper article reading _**"NO MORE LITTLE KIDS FOR YOU! FEMALE PEDO TEACHER AT BEACON BUSTED AFTER ALLEGED PAST VICTIM COMMITS SUICIDE!"**_

Yang, reading the newspaper as Ruby ate breakfast, said, "Thank God they caught that sick fuck."

"Indeed," Ruby replied. "Jaune's getting interviewed by police because he witnessed the suicide."

"Oh yeah. I heard about that. Too bad for Sacha that her friend offed herself like that." Yang then checked her phone as she finished her toast. "Well, I gotta run to work. See ya later, sis."

"See ya later, Yang." Ruby then got up to get dressed and take a shower. Today, she had to go to a 4-hour training session at Beacon. Ruby had put in an application to be promoted to the position of Lieutenant in her platoon since Jaune was being promoted to Captain in their Company starting January 10th of the new year. As a result, she wanted to build up administration points so she could get an edge against anyone else that wanted the position. She already had a lot, especially for a Staff Sergeant, because she underwent special ops training at Beacon.

After getting out of the shower and getting dressed 25 minutes later, Ruby received an email on her cellphone from the current Captain of her company. It read, "To all members of Delta Company: We are being deployed on January 5 to January 8. Meet up at the command and deployment centre at 0800 on January 5. We will be coming back at approximately 1800 on January 8. Also, since Lieutenant Arc will be taking over as head of Delta Company, I would like to thank all of you for giving me the best time I've ever had in my life so far. It's been an honour. With Lieutenant Arc good luck. Sincerely, Captain Joseph Miles."

Ruby said to herself, "I wonder what the first mission of the new year will bring us..."


	25. Season 2: Part 5

_**December 30, 2020**_

The end of the year ball was underway! Upstairs, the company ballroom was packed with sharp-dressed people as firefighters and their guests laughed, danced, sang, and talked amongst themselves. The DJ was a member of Goodwill Fire Company who worked part-time DJing for numerous parties. You could tell who requested what song by how old each song was. Often, the younger firefighters requested hip hop, whereas the older firefighters requested classic pop and rock.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, George, Jaune, Sun, and even King Delwyn IV all sat at the same table. Ren stayed home with Nora, both of them having attended last year. Sun was telling a story about when his team hunted for the first time after graduating. "And so, in short, we may have levelled a house and 2 cars, but we killed both of those Grimm in that town, and that's all that matters."

The rest of the table laughed. Delwyn said, "Indeed. Sure, a house was destroyed, but think of all the houses that could have also been destroyed if those Grimm hadn't been taken care of." He then heard a song start up. "Say, Ruby, wanna dance? I love this song."

"Sure," Ruby replied. "I mean, I don't know dancing that well, but you can teach me." She then stood up and let Delwyn take her hand.

George turned to Yang and said, "Wanna join them?"

Yang smiled and replied, "What do you think?" She then took George's hand and led him to the dance floor.

Jaune turned to Weiss and said, "So, Weiss, I've been thinking. We've been together-together, as Nora would put it, for a while now, yet I haven't said 3 certain words to you yet."

Weiss turned to Jaune and held her right index finger to Jaune's mouth, saying, "I know. I know what those words are." She then kissed Jaune, closing her eyes and stroking the back of Jaune's head.

Sun and Blake looked on in surprise. Sun said, "Uhhh... Hey there, lovebirds..."

Weiss and Jaune turned to the other couple and laughed. She then turned back to Jaune, saying, "I love you too."

Blake asked after drinking some water, "So, what are the odds we'll get a four letter word that begins with c that isn't country matters?"

"The paid guys already got a medical during the party. I think they just came back. Also, nice censoring of both of those 4 letter words." She and Blake laughed.

Meanwhile, as Yang was filling up a glass of water, she noticed Denis grabbing some food. She walked over to Denis and said, "Hey there, kid. Where's Tracy?"

"She's sitting at my table," the young teenager replied. "Her girlfriend was going to come, but she had something else to do. Trace isn't too happy about it."

"Are you thinking of making a move on her?" Yang giggled.

Denis blushed and quickly replied, "No! What do you mean?"

"Aw, cmon, Denny. You and I know she isn't too happy about her current relationship. Throw a few signs out at her and see if she throws a few signs out at you. It won't hurt. Well, I gotta go back to my man. Good luck." Yang then walked away.

Meanwhile, as the last song finished, a slow song began. Delwyn blushed and said, "A slow song? Well then..."

Ruby giggled and held both of his hands. She said, "Don't worry. This is literally the easiest form of dancing."

Delwyn turned around and saw his 2 guards watching him. One of them smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

Then, the 2 began slowly swaying themselves to the beat of the song. To them, it felt as though there was nothing else in the world. Ruby laid her head against Delwyn's chest and said, "You're so sweet."

"You too," Delwyn replied. As the song entered the second chorus, Ruby turned to face Delwyn and gave him a kiss. Delwyn responded the same.

Yang and George, watching from nearby, enjoyed the sight. Yang said, "She's growing up so fast. I can still remember when she was a toddler and I was a little kid. Now she's courting the God damn king of our nation..." She then turned to George. "And I am courting a handsome devil and a fellow brother in the fire service."

George replied, "Awwww, thanks, Yang. That really means a lot. As for me, I am courting the most beautiful woman in the world." The couple then kissed as well.

Suddenly, 3 seconds into their kiss, they all heard the siren roar up. The DJ immediately turned off the music and synced the speakers to the paging channel. The lights flipped on as any firefighter who was sober ran to the fire poles in the other rooms.

Yang quickly took her heels off and said, "It sounds like a Box Alarm. You brought your gear, right?"

"Yep," George replied. "I'll drive my car to the scene."

Within seconds, the dance floor had mostly emptied, save for the heels of many girls who had taken them off to go to the call.

On the first floor, the Vigilant firefighters all suited up. George had put his gear in an empty locker next to Yang's. He took longer to get his gear on since he had yellow pants that went with his gear.

Delwyn, who had unexpectedly slid down the fire pole as well, caught up to Ruby as she was about to get on Truck 201. He said, "Ruby! Please, be safe."

Ruby replied by giving him a kiss and saying, "I love you, my king."

"I love you, Ruby." The couple then hugged before Ruby split to get on the truck.

Delwyn then stood back as Blake and another firefighter ran to the truck to get on. Once they got on and filled the 9th and 10th seats, the cab doors closed and the king watched as Truck 201 raced out of the firehouse and to the call, sirens blaring and lights blazing.

One of his bodyguards said to him, "Well that was interesting."

Delwyn ignored him, still in awe of the moment.

* * *

At 9:48, the three trucks arrived at an 8-storey apartment building with fire shooting out of a window on the 5th floor. The truck crew immediately got out and began suiting up to get in the building as the driver of the truck ran to the back of it. He then climbed up to the control panel of the aerial ladder and began raising the ladder up to a fire escape on the 5th floor.

Because the captain of Vigilant and Weiss's dad Hermann were not sober and couldn't respond, the incident commander for now was Alfred Schnee. He said, "I want the truck crew to climb up the ladder to the 5th floor with 2 hand lines and pike poles stat!"

Ruby, Blake, and Weiss all strapped their SCBAs in and grabbed a hand line from the side of the truck. Ruby dragged the line out by 200 feet approximately, and then Weiss decoupled the line. Meanwhile, Yang and another firefighter hit a hydrant to supply the truck with water. Once they secured a supply line to the hydrant, they received a hand signal from the pump operator to turn it on. As they did, several more trucks from more companies arrived.

Eventually, 6 firefighters began climbing up the ladder, carrying 2 hand lines and 4 pike poles. As they inched closer to the fire escape, just feet from the flames, they all masked up as smoke blew into their faces.

Ruby was the first to reach the tip of the ladder. She noticed ice on the fire escape and yelled down, "Be careful! There's ice here! Get me a pike pole to break it!" After receiving a pike pole, she broke the ice and swept it away. Afterwards, she carefully stepped onto the fire escape, a nozzle in her hand.

Once her and another firefighter stepped off, they began spraying down the flames on the fire escape. Ruby motioned the other firefighters to enter the apartment next to the burning one by pointing at an open window next to the burning window.

Eventually, all 6 firefighters entered the next door apartment. A radio transmission said, "Vigilant Truck Interior, be cautious and get out of the way if you can. Goodwill is gonna spray down the apartment next to you with their deck gun."

A senior firefighter amongst them radioed back, "10-4, we'll be careful up here." Soon after, Engine 202 began spraying 500 gallons of water per minute at the burning apartment with their deck gun for 30 seconds, knocking down the fire.

Once they finished, the senior firefighter said, "I want one line in here and pike poles to be used for breaking up the ceiling. I want the second line in the hallway, fighting the remaining fire."

Ruby began ripping up the ceiling with a pike pole, bringing down some burning debris that the first line crew, consisting of Blake and another firefighter, put out.

Meanwhile, Weiss and her cousin Elsa, Alfred's 17-year-old daughter and his youngest child, began advancing the second line into the hallway. Weiss opened the gates of the nozzle and sprayed water at the flames in the hallway, knocking them down. She then heard a radio transmission say, "Vigilant Truck Interior, be advised, you have 2 more apartments above you on fire at this time. We got 4 more lines and 15 more guys coming up."

As they reached the burning apartment, Elsa noticed the ceiling behind them cracking. "Weiss, look out!" She then pushed herself and Weiss out of the way as a part of the ceiling came down just behind them.

Weiss dropped the line and said, "Oh my God..." She then grabbed her radio and said, "Second Line Crew to the rest of Vigilant Truck Interior, we just had a partial ceiling collapse behind us. Can you send some crew over to clear the debris?"

"Got it," the senior firefighter replied. "We'll head over. Do you need to call a mayday?"

"Negative at this time. We can still get out the other way if we have to. No mayday." Weiss then turned to Elsa and said, "Thank God you pushed me. We both could have died right then and there."

Elsa replied, "Thanks. Let's see if this line still works." Weiss nodded and tried to open up the nozzle, but barely any water came out.

"Agh, fuck. Looks like the collapse either flattened or punctured the line. We'll have to drop it." The 2 of them then got up and began clearing out debris so they could get out.

Eventually, both of them stumbled back into the apartment they had started in. The senior firefighter said, "Both of you, go out to the fire escape and cool off. Take your masks off out there to conserve air. You should only have about 9 to 10 minutes left out of 30."

Then, a firefighter from another company shouted, "Holy fuck, we got kids in this apartment here!"

The senior firefighter ran out and said, "We'll be right over! Everyone except Weiss and Elsa, follow me!"

Weiss shook her head as she and Elsa walked out to the fire escape, taking their helmets and masks off. Elsa said, "There's no way they're saveable. They were in there for too God damn long."

As Weiss looked out onto the city street, packed with snow, ice, fire engines, firefighters, and onlookers, she said, "Don't say that. They're not not saveable until they're declared dead, or unless they're a charred corpse, or if their consistency is similar to chunky salsa."

Elsa said, "Gross, but true. Fucking kids, though, like, why? They don't even have a concept of how permanent death really is if they're under 12."

"Well, this will certainly put a damper on the festivities back at the firehouse."

* * *

At 11:21, all Vigilant trucks returned to quarters. Soon after, the firefighters that had responded to the call were back upstairs, partying and trying to get the images of the victims of the fire out of their heads.

As Theresa and Denis, neither of whom went on the fire, talked, Yang walked up to them and said, "Hey there."

"Hey Yang," Theresa replied. "How was it?"

Yang sighed and said, "Trust me, be glad you were not there. That's all I'm gonna say." She then downed an entire 4 fingers of hard liquor. "No more calls for me tonight. No fucking way, kiddos. So, Tracy, how's the oh-so-wonderful pan life treating ya? Going not too bad for me."

"Well, it's going not too bad for me as well. The thing is, I don't really like my girlfriend anymore in that way, but I wanna hold off on breaking things off until after Independence Day since breaking up on that day is kind of a dick move."

Denis nervously replied, "I can agree with that." Yang smiled and nodded at him.

The older blonde then said, "I think you've written yourself into an interesting dilemma. Now, why don't you like your girlfriend anymore, Theresa?"

"Well, I like a guy, but I don't know if he likes me back."

Denis blushed. Yang replied, "What's his name? C'mon, we trust each other with our lives."

"Ehhhhh... I don't know if that's a good idea. I mean, what if he hears about it?"

Yang then paused, and suddenly said, "It's Denis over here, right? It's gotta be. He's the only guy around you to hear you admit it."

Theresa blushed and said, "Den... Denis? Yang, can you excuse me and Denny here for a moment?" Theresa then got up and motioned for Denis to get up as well. "Come with me."

Yang gave a very nervous Denis a high-five as he walked past her. She said, "Go get her, tiger."

Back at the other table, Blake sat quietly, still thinking about the fire, as Ruby and Delwyn talked endlessly about other topics. Sun asked her, "You've been quiet for a few minutes. What happened?"

"There were 4 kids there," Blake replied. "And 2 adults. None of us know about their condition in the hospital."

Sun paused and then said, "Oh... Do you want me to stay quiet?"

"No, please. I need interaction after what I saw there, okay? The only thing I want is someone to talk to, yet my brooding here is making others ignore me, Sun." She then hugged Sun.

Ruby looked at Blake and said to Delwyn, "Blake didn't take the fire well. Usually, that's not like her at all."

"I can tell," Delwyn replied. "She seems to be the type who can deal with stuff like this the best. Anyways, about what I said to you back there before the call-"

Ruby put a finger to his lips and shushed him, saying, "I mean what I said. Do you?"

"Yes."

Ruby replied by kissing Delwyn. "Then it's official."


	26. Season 2: Part 6

_**December 31, 2020**_

New Year's Eve was in full swing. Many of the firefighters had congregated at the fire station for the day. While the daytime wasn't busier than usual, during the night, fires would break out across the city as hooligans torched abandoned buildings in "celebration" of New Year's, Independence Day, and Constitution Day.

At 4:30, Ren, Nora, and their daughter Leona arrived at the station. In the rec room, over 40 people had packed the room, talking, eating, and watching TV. Yang said to the new family, "Hey there, guys." She then looked at the baby and said, "Aww, hello there, Leona."

Ren said, "Where's Ruby and Blake?"

"Spending their New Year's with their boyfriends. How's the baby?"

"She's doing baby stuff," Nora replied, holding the baby in a basket/car seat. Leona then began crying. "Hmmm, I think she's hungry. When did I last breastfeed Leona?"

"In the morning."

"Okay then. Time to eat, or, well, drink." Nora then lifted the baby from the basket, exposed one of her breasts, and let the baby breastfeed. "The doctor recommended only breastfeeding for 6 to 8 months and then another 6 to 8 months of breastfeeding and soft foods. I wish it was longer."

"Is this the first time she's been at the firehouse?"

"Oh yeah," Ren replied. "This is her first time, Nora. Hopefully, she isn't scared by all the pagers going off and our siren starting up when we get a fire call."

Then, all the pagers rang for an EMS call for a highly intoxicated man. 4 people, including both of the paid guys, ran out to the ambulance. Surprisingly, Leona paid no attention to it, and even laughed a little.

"Well," Yang said. "It's official. Leona loves loud noises." The 3 of them then laughed.

Weiss was in the office, filling out paperwork to put Theresa in the BF-CFR class coming up, as well as 3 new applications that would be coming in on the 6th of January to vote upon. Her father said to her as he looked through a cabinet of folders, "So, Weiss, Theresa's all set to go down to the academy on the 2nd of January?"

"Yup, I just sent the clearance email to the training division. She'll be turning 16 on May 21, so it won't be long after she finishes that she'll be cleared to go in buildings. She'll finish the class on March 20. Denis will be turning 14 on November 18, so he'll get in the January 2022 class. In the meantime, we'll train him to do exterior ops here."

"Good job," Hermann replied.

"I also got in the clearance emails for my training in Advanced Firefighter-Paramedic and training for 17 others in the company for other things. We had a pretty good year in terms of membership rolls. We had only 4 members leave compared to 11 members joining. Let's hope next year is even better."

"We have a few new applications to go over for the weekly meeting tomorrow." Hermann then showed Weiss 3 new applications. "One guy is coming over from Protection Fire And Engine Company with 9 years as a firefighter from when he was 14, another is 15 years old, and the last one is a retired paid firefighter-medic who is 46 years old."

"It's good that we're getting 2 experienced people. As for the 15 year old, I'll put them into the June 2021 BF-CFR class if they're accepted in." Weiss then got a text message from Jaune about the mission the group was going to go on soon. After she replied to him, she got back to typing on the computer, smiling and thinking about Jaune.

Then, the pagers went off, followed by the siren tone. Hermann said, "I told you it wouldn't take long."

As the info of the call came in, it became clear that 2 different calls were being dispatched to Vigilant at the same time. The first call was for a Bravo-Response car accident with Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad, and a Box Alarm for a Structure Fire in Goodwill Engine Company's first-due with Meilyr Broderick Fire Company and Excellence Fire Company, plus the Assistant District 2 Chief.

Hermann and Weiss headed out. Hermann shouted to the firefighters, "The Truck will go to the fire, and the Rescue will go to the accident!"

Weiss and Yang both put their gear on and ran to get on the truck. Ren decided to go to the accident instead of the fire and got on the rescue. Hermann went to the fire on the truck.

Within 2 minutes, both trucks went out in opposite directions to the 2 calls.

9 minutes after the calls came in, Truck 201 arrived at the fire. By now, a Code 99 had been called, bringing in a 5th company and the District 2 Chief. Everyone got out just in time to watch 3 Goodwill firefighters bring out what appeared to be a small child from the thick smoke. A broken window on the second floor indicated that something was probably thrown in to start the fire.

Weiss and Yang looked on as 2 other Goodwill firefighters ran over with medic bags and began to do chest compressions. Weiss said, "Damn it, not kids." The 2 of them then masked up.

Hermann yelled, "We need 4 firefighters from Vigilant inside the building!"

Yang yelled back," Me and Weiss will go!" The 2 of them then walked over to the building's entrance and went inside.

As they did, 2 Goodwill firefighters passed them, carrying yet another child, and one of them said, "There's a hand line we left on the second floor at the top of the stairs. Be careful, there's a hole in the floor of the 4th apartment due to renovation." Weiss shook her head in disbelief, and she and Yang walked up the stairs.

When they got there, Yang picked up the hand line and said, "Why did it have to be fucking kids?" They both then advanced down the hallway with the hand line. After passing the 3rd apartment, they looked into the 4th apartment and saw smoke pouring out.

Weiss said, "Let's go in and knock the rest of the fire down. Be careful and watch out for the hole." The 2 of them then got down on their knees and began crawling in the thick smoke. Yang felt the floor out in front of them to make sure they didn't fall through the hole to the first floor.

As they entered the living room/kitchen area of the apartment, they began knocking down the fire. Yang said as she looked at the blackened walls of the room, "Looks like the entire apartment burned up! The walls are all charred!"

"Wouldn't be surprised," Weiss replied as she increased the water flow out of the hozzle. "It was probably a flaming bottle that was thrown in here."

After a few more moments of spraying, Weiss stopped. Yang said, "Let's check the 4th downstairs apartment for any extensions."

"Good idea," Weiss replied as the 2 began crawling back into the hallway outside the apartment. When they got out of the 4th apartment, they both stood up and began walking to the stairs with their hand line as 3 other firefighters walked past them towards the 4th apartment with hand tools.

When they got downstairs, they turned and began walking to the 4th apartment on the first floor. When they reached it, they both went down on their knees again and crawled inside.

Weiss said, "Well, looks like we got some fire here too." She then began spraying down the small hotspots in the family room/kitchen area of the apartment, covering the whole room in water.

As they did, a radio transmission said, "Incident Command to all Vigilant firefighters from Truck 201, once you are done with your current tasks, report back to your truck to respond to another call for a dumpster truck fire."

Yang said, "Oh my God, you gotta be shitting me. Another call?"

Weiss replied, "Let's get a bit more water on this apartment and get back outside. I wonder how Ren is doing at the accident."

* * *

At the car accident, the patient was a man who had complained of severe leg pain after his car had hit a parked car on the side of the road. By now, the firefighters were getting ready to place him onto a stretcher.

Ren and 5 other firefighters all said as they began lifting the backboard the victim was on, "One, two, three." They then gently placed him onto the stretcher.

A Vigilant firefighter said to Ren, "They had a pretty bad fire out in Goodwill. Now we're getting a dumpster truck fire in our area too."

Ren asked, "How bad was the fire?"

"They brought out 4 kids and 2 adults who inhaled a lot of smoke. They think a flaming bottle was thrown at an apartment under renovation of the 2nd floor. They special called 2 more companies for ambulances." He then turned to Situ Mingyu's captain and asked, "Captain, can we be dismissed to handle the dumpster truck fire?"

"I was just about to," the captain replied. He then went to his car and radioed Fire Alarm to release Rescue 201 to the scene to go to the dumpster truck fire.

Ren then walked over to the rescue and got in a seat in the back. He had ridden the rear step to the accident, and he did not want to do it again in the cold weather.

* * *

3 minutes later, the truck and the rescue pulled up on the dumpster truck fire. By now, the cab and the engine were fully involved.

Weiss and Yang got out and immediately grabbed a hand line. As they stretched it, Ren and another firefighter grabbed a hand line from the rescue as well.

Weiss and Yang approached the fire away from where the wind was blowing to make sure none of the smoke blew in their faces. Weiss turned around and said, "Charge the line!" The engineer nodded and filled their hand line with water from the truck's booster tank.

Yang then opened the nozzle up and began knocking down the fire. As the water hit the flames, smoke poured out of the cab and engine. Soon afterwards, Ren's line began spraying water as well.

After a few minutes, the fire was more or less out. As Yang shut down her line, they all heard another siren approaching.

They looked behind the dumpster truck and saw Vigilant's ambulance responding back to the structure fire with lights flashing and sirens blaring. As the ambulance passed them Weiss said, "I assume they needed more people on scene, as well as a way to pick up all our firefighters that went to the scene on their own. God, that was a bad fire."

* * *

At 5:40, all Vigilant trucks were back in the station.

Blake, having responded to the structure fire in a taxi, sat at the bar next to Yang and Weiss. She said to them, "Well that was a bad start to New Year's Eve."

"Sure was," Yang replied solemnly. "I know we're gonna get more structure fires tonight, so the only thing I can pray for is that they're in abandoned buildings."

"They usually are," Weiss added. "Flaming bottle attacks on occupied structures are rare."

Blake then drank the last of her soda and said, "Well, I'm gonna go head over back to my place to be with Sun." She crushed her can and handed it to Yang. "See you gals later."

"Bye," Yang said as she waved. She then turned to Weiss, "George was at that fire, but I didn't really see him." She then sighed and laughed. "You know, I'm starting to look to the future with George. I mean, come on, I'm 23 years old, I'll be turning 24 next year, and I'm approaching the age where most women start getting married and having kids."

Weiss replied, "Yeah, so? That doesn't mean you have to get hitched to him and have kids."

"But I'm starting to plan for the future. Look, maybe I want to marry him eventually. He's a caring young man who, A: doesn't judge me for my sexuality, B: is actually very good at mediating conflicts. C: understands life as a firefighter because we're both firefighters. D: is rather humble and understand that neither of us are perfect. And E: would never think of harming me intentionally, ever."

"You got lucky with George," Weiss replied. "As for me, it's still too early with Jaune, who, no doubt, is a great guy, to be thinking that far ahead into the future." Weiss then changed the subject. "So, anyways, mind if I tell ya a story about me that happened here when I was 15? It's pretty funny."

"Sure. I could use a good laugh to get my mind off of that fire without having to drink."

"Well, what happened was this: I was 15, my sister was 20, and there was this kid in the company named Harald who was like 13 at the time. He was showing us a toy that you stood on that had wheels on it. It was big back like 8 years ago. It was basically a hands-free two-wheeled scooter called a hoverboard."

"Oh yeah, I heard about those." Yang laughed. "There were a lot of videos of people falling on their ass off of them."

"Well this Harald kid was more or less a pro at it. He let my sister try it out. She got on it, tried moving forward, wobbled for a few seconds, and then fell right next to Rescue 201."

Yang laughed hard, almost spitting out her drink. "What? Winter did what? That's crazy."

"Our father, who was just elected captain at the time, was watching, and he jokingly said, 'As your father and your captain, I will now instruct you to never do that again.'"

Suddenly, the pagers went off and the siren turned on again. The radio squawked out a call for a structure fire in District 1 near the border of District 2. Usually, Vigilant would not have gone. However, 2 companies that were near the fire were out of service on other calls. Yang, annoyed, said, "Not this shit again."

Weiss replied, "It's New Year's Eve. Everything burns on this day. Sounds like someone called in a report of people throwing at least 4 flaming bottles at an abandoned storefront."

Ren said to Yang and Weiss, "I'm gonna sit this one out and stay here with Nora and Leona."

"See ya later then," Weiss quickly replied as she ran out to the apparatus bay to grab her gear and get on a truck. After putting her gear on, she ran and hopped aboard Truck 201, taking the 5th seat out of 8 in the back. Yang soon joined her, taking the 6th seat.

Once all the seats were filled, the truck pulled out, lights flashing and sirens blaring. Yang said as she strapped in her seat's SCBA, "2 structure fires in less than an hour and 15 minutes. I must say, I thought I'd never see that much action in a single day."


	27. Season 2: Part 7

About 16 minutes after the call came in, Truck 201 arrived at the fire. By now, there was not much fire left to put out, as the first-due companies had made a quick-knock down on a convenience storefront.

As the crew got out, Yang said, "Aw man, the fire's out already."

Weiss replied, "But we can still do cleanup and overhaul. Go grab some tools and quit your complaining, probie." She then laughed.

Yang chuckled and grabbed a broom from a compartment on the truck. "Want me to sweep up the debris in front?"

"Why not? We'll probably wrap up here in like 5 minutes, so let's try and do something." Weiss then grabbed a pike pole and walked towards the building.

Inside the building, a bunch of firefighters mulled around, checking for hotspots. Some had masks on, others didn't. Most of the smoke was gone by this point. As Weiss stepped in with another Vigilant firefighter, a firefighter from Kroeger Hose Company said to them, "You 2 Vigilant guys, check the second floor for extensions."

Weiss replied, "You got it." She then turned to the other Vigilant firefighter and quietly said, "You can tell who's from Kroeger, Tuxedo, or that new Halfmoon Rescue Squad by which ones looks like they know what they're doing."

The other firefighter laughed as they went up the stairs to the second floor and said, "You sure can. Don't worry, the new companies will get their time in."

On the second floor, there was a lot of smoke damage. The fire itself had barely, if at all, spread upstairs. Weiss pointed to the first apartment and said, "Let's check that one first."

The other firefighter opened the door and looked inside. He then yelled out, "What the fuck?!"

Weiss then walked past him and said, "Why is there... What?!"

The inside of the apartment was covered from floor to ceiling in junk, rotting food, human excrement, and garbage. "Who the fuck would live like this?"

Weiss took her helmet off and began to put her mask on, saying, "Nope. Nuh uh. I am NOT breathing this shit in, literally." The other firefighter nodded and did the same. After Weiss put her helmet back on, she radioed, "Vigilant Interior to Vigilant Command."

"Go ahead."

"Can you send us up like 6 more interior firefighters? We got a hoarder apartment up here filled to the brim with... Stuff... And it's pretty hazardous up here. Tell them to mask up when they get here." She held herself back from saying 'shit.'

"10-4."

Weiss then began to rummage through the garbage with her pike pole. She said, "This is fucking disgusting. My God, I haven't seen a hoarder house this bad since I was 16. My second interior fire was in one of these shitholes." She then pointed at one piece of garbage. "Look at this. This thing is a used condom." She then went back to rummaging through the trash.

The other firefighter looked around the apartment, searching for hotspots. He found a stack of newspapers and said, "Hey Weiss, check this out! I found a bunch of old newspapers. There's one here from Cinder Fall's attack on Vale."

"This guy has newspapers that old? Not surprised." Weiss then moved onto another pile. "You know, I was there and I fought the Grimm that came into the city. It was a really big battle. I still have a lot of questions about that woman, even though it's been 5 and a half years, give or take."

Then, Incident Command radioed, "Attention all Vigilant firefighters, report back to your trucks for a Box Alarm in your first-due."

Weiss stopped what she was doing and motioned for the other firefighter to follow her, saying, "Come on. We got another fire call to go to."

"Great," the other firefighter sarcastically replied. "Another building fire."

* * *

20 minutes after the new call came in, Truck 201, Rescue 201, and Ambulance 201 pulled up at the other fire. By now, several units from neighbouring companies were on scene, as well as a bunch of Vigilant firefighters who had responded on their own.

The fire was on the 7th floor of a 30-storey office building. Truck 201's crew was ordered to split up into RIT and regular fire ops because a second alarm had just been ordered. Weiss said to Yang as they both got off, "I'll do the RIT team. You'll probably stay outside and do support."

Yang, bummed out, said, "Not again. I wanna go in."

"Maybe you will. Wait and see." Weiss then walked away to join the second RIT team.

Then, a voice called out, "Yang! Over here!" Yang turned around and saw George waving at her.

She walked over and hugged him, saying, "Hellooo!" They then separated. "So, you're stuck out here too?"

"Unfortunately," George said as he adjusted the straps on his SCBA. "I'm just backup right now. How about you, love?"

"More or less the same," Yang replied. "Say, wanna see a movie later this week? There are a whole bunch coming out this New Year's season."

"Of course," George replied. "I'm free all weekend."

"Excellent." Yang then gave George a kiss. "You know what that means, right?"

"Of course." George then changed subject matter. "By the way, by the end of the month, I'm gonna be moving in with you more or less full-time. I'm gonna sell my place so I can get more money to buy a new car since mine is crap. You don't mind, right?"

"Nope, not at all. Ruby won't mind either. Besides, she spends a lot of time either doing hunting training or, you know, being with and 'doing' her boyfriend." The 2 of them then laughed. "You know, it feels like just yesterday, she was still a small child. Now she's going after boys and girls, oh my."

"Maybe one day, we'll see one of our own children grow up."

Yang laughed and said, "Oh boy, I cannot wait for that." They both then turned their heads to the entrance to the building as a frantic commotion was heard.

A firefighter over there shouted, "Get a stretcher! We got a firefighter down here!" He was a member of the first RIT team.

Yang and George immediately ran over to Ambulance 201, where both of the paid firefighters assigned to Vigilant were rolling out the stretcher and grabbing a medical kit. Yang asked one of the paid firefighters, "What the hell happened over there?"

The paid firefighter replied, "I think one of the firefighters collapsed from chest pains. It sounds like he had a heart attack." The 4 of them then began running to the scene, stretcher and medical kit in tow.

When they got there, a Goodwill firefighter was on the ground. He was clammy and sweaty, and his coat, SCBA, and helmet had been ripped off by other firefighters. He tried to speak, but could not.

A volunteer firefighter-paramedic from Goodwill was handed the medical kit by George and Yang. George said to Yang, "This guy has been with Goodwill for at least 20 years. I thought he was in top physical shape."

A paid firefighter and another volunteer then carefully slid a backboard under the collapsed firefighter as the volunteer medic stuck an IV into his right arm. She said, "Get me a vial of morphine! Someone else also grab an O2 mask and administer oxygen!"

Yang said, "I'll grab the O2!" She then grabbed a green oxygen bag off of the stretcher and zipped open a compartment containing a pre-connected oxygen mask. "Hold on, sir." She then lifted the patient's head and put the mask over his mouth and nose. Another firefighter then turned the oxygen tank on, allowing oxygen to flow to the mask.

George asked another firefighter, "How bad was Rummel's EKG?" The patient was firefighter-EMT Horace Rummel.

"He had a myocardial infarction and then his EKG went all over. His blood pressure was at a constant 150 over 100, AKA very, very high."

"Was he outside or in the building when this happened?"

"He was inside. In fact, I saw him go down. We had just gotten off the elevator on the 6th floor when he collapsed. We quickly helped him up and went down the elevator to get help. RIT 1 saw it happen and went on another elevator to meet up with us. My God, this New Year's sure is crazy as hell." He then shook his head.

Then, Yang, a paid firefighter, and 2 Goodwill volunteers bent down and lifted the patient and the backboard onto the stretcher. The crowd of firefighters then followed the stretcher all the way to Ambulance 201.

Yang walked up to the back doors and opened them up. After the patient was loaded onto the ambulance, Yang closed the back doors, and Ambulance 201 sped away, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

George walked up to Yang and patted her on the back, saying, "God, I hope he's okay. He's a really cool guy. He just had a daughter 5 months ago and he also has a 5 year old son and an 8 year old daughter."

"Don't worry, Georgie. He'll be fine."

Ruby then suddenly walked up to them and said, "Hey, sis. Hey, George."

Yang turned around and said, "Hey there, sis!" The 2 then hugged and smiled. "So, Delwyn doesn't mind you going to this fire on your own?"

"Of course not," Ruby said. She then shivered. "It's really, really cold out."

Weiss then walked over with Blake, saying, "So, I guess Team RWBY reunites once more?"

The 5 of them then laughed. Blake said, "It sure is. Anyways, has this been a busy New Year's so far, Weiss? After all, you have been a firefighter longer than any of us."

"Ehhhhh," Weiss replied. "I've seen busier."

Ruby replied, "No way! Me and Delwyn have been listening to calls going out and it's crazy. Speaking of him, he's currently recording the New Year's address right now, so that left me some free time to be here."

George said, "Mind giving us some spoilers?"

Ruby laughed and replied, "Nah. It's just more political stuff and well-wishes as always."

Then, an officer yelled over to them, "Hey, you 4, get your SCBAs on and climb Truck 201's ladder! You're all going to the 6th floor! No need to grab tools! Weiss Schnee, stay down here for RIT!"

Weiss replied back, "Will do!" Ruby and Blake ran over to Truck 201 to pick up 2 extra SCBA sets and put them on as the other 2 walked over to climb aboard the turntable of the ladder.

Once everyone was ready, the 4 of them climbed up the ladder. When they got to the 6th floor, Ruby stepped off first. Once everyone was on the 6th floor, an officer from another company said, "You 5 go to the 7th floor and man 2 hand lines we left at the end of the stairs."

Blake nodded and said, "Got it." She then turned to everyone else and said, "Everybody mask up."

After masking up, the 4 climbed the stairs to the 7th floor and picked up the 2 hand lines. On the 7th floor, the fire had fully engulfed half of the floor and had spread to part of the 8th floor. Blake and Ruby manned one hand line, while George and Yang manned the other.

After crawling for about a minute, the two teams approached the roaring flames. They both opened up their nozzles and began knocking down the fire, pushing it back. As they advanced, the thick smoke from the flames blinded their masks. A call came through on the radio calling for 5 freed up units at the fire to respond to a Box Alarm in Goodwill's first-due involving a flaming bottle thrown at a shop underground in a subway station. George said, "My God, we're swamped."

"At least second alarm units are coming here to relieve us," Blake replied as she crawled further down with Ruby.

Eventually, after 18 minutes of fighting the fire in the thick black smoke and intense heat, their tanks began to run out of air. Blake said, "Alright, let's go back downstairs. Our air bottles are starting to run out." They had managed to put a very serious dent in the fire.

* * *

Truck 201 returned to quarters at 7:52. By then, Ambulance 201 had also returned to quarters about 10 minutes earlier, but just as the truck returned, they got a medical call.

Ruby and Blake left soon afterwards, leaving Weiss, Yang, and the other partiers at the station. Yang asked a firefighter tending the bar, "Sir, can you get me a can of beer? I'm not in the mood for going to more calls for a while."

"Same here," Weiss replied. "I'll take a break from it."

The bartender replied, "Sure thing. This can of beer will free you 2 from going on calls for at least 1 hour. Every drink after that adds another hour." He then handed the 2 girls cans of beer.

Yang said to Weiss as she opened her can, "Well that was an interesting several hours."

"You can say that again," Weiss replied. The 2 then did a toast and drank.


	28. Season 2: Part 8

_**January 2, 2021**_

Weiss, Ruby, Yang, and Blake all met at the training academy entrance, carrying bags with their turnout gear. Starting today, they would undergo more advanced fire and medical training. Weiss would undergo Advanced Firefighter-Paramedic training, while Ruby, Blake, and Yang would all undergo Intermediate Firefighter-EMT training. Several other Vigilant firefighters would also undergo training of other kinds.

Weiss said proudly to the group, "This day begins a new era for all 4 of us. Starting today, we will all be able to perform various tasks we have only hoped of doing. For the next 24 weeks for you 3, you will undergo training to further your firefighter training and become emergency medical technicians. As for me, I will begin a training course of 36 weeks to further my firefighting skills and become a paramedic."

Ruby excitedly said, "I can't wait! I've been itching to get more certs since I passed my BF-CFR, and now's my chance!" She jumped in the air with excitement.

Yang laughed and told her, "Calm down, little sis. We still got a long way to go before we reach Weiss's level of proficiency."

"I'm not that proficient," Weiss casually replied. "I've only been doing this since 2009. Compare that to guys who've been doing this since the 1990s or even earlier."

"Well," Blake replied. "Let's hope we can reach that level one day, girls."

As they walked through the entrance onto the academy grounds, they saw Theresa enter after them. She said, "Hey guys! Over here!"

Yang turned around and said, "Hey there, Trace!" She then high-fived Theresa. "So, you here for BF-CFR?"

"Of course," the young girl said. "I brought my book bag from school and my turnout gear bag. My mom had me bring a lot of supplies, so my shoulders hurt already."

"I don't see why," Weiss replied. "We don't write things down a lot. We just put our gear on and get to work. By the way, did you make sure to bring an SCBA with you?"

The girl frantically replied, "Wait, what?! Shit!"

Weiss then laughed, saying, "Just kidding, Theresa. We don't bring SCBAs to training, only our masks. The academy supplies us with their own sets. They'll give us SCBAs that are timed to our company's timing, 30 minutes."

Theresa grinned and said, "You asshole! You almost gave me a heart attack!" She then laughed. "Well, time to go."

* * *

After training ended, the quartet returned to their apartments at 10:45 P.M. They were all tired out, having first done a series of medical practise courses and then a live fire drill. Weiss in particular was very tired, having done her first practise intravenous injection into a cadaver before doing a high-rise fire attack. Ruby asked her, "So, how's paramedic training?"

"Very tiring," Weiss replied as she yawned. "But it was fun. The cadaver we had was a really old guy who had died of a heart attack about 3 months ago." She then yawned again. "Well, I gotta go to bed. Goodnight, girls."

Yang walked into her room and saw George, who had arrived 10 minutes earlier, sleeping in her bed. She smiled and said, "Hey Georgie, I'm home."

George tiredly woke up and turned on the light in the room. He yawned and said, "Oh hey, Yang. How was it?"

"Pretty good. How about you?"

"Same." He then turned off the lights and rolled over. "Goodnight."

Yang got undressed as she opened her drawers and put her night clothes on. After, she got into bed next to George and kissed him on the cheek, saying, "Goodnight."

Ruby, in her room, yawned as she checked her phone. She said to herself, "I really hope we don't get a fire-rescue call tonight. I'm tired as hell." She then put her phone away and went to bed.

* * *

_**January 3, 2021**_

At 4:02 A.M., Ruby's worst fears were realised.

Ruby, Yang, and George all awoke to the sound of the station siren going off. Ruby jumped out of bed and said to herself as she grabbed a warmer shirt, "You gotta be kidding me!"

Yang and George both scrambled out of bed to get dressed in warmer clothes. George got a text on his phone that read out the info of the call. It was for a carbon monoxide alarm with reported illness.

Within 3 minutes, Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Blake all reached the station. George had gotten into his car to drive to Goodwill's station. The 4 of them all quickly put their gear on.

Ruby and Yang ran to the truck while Blake and Weiss got in the rescue since there were only 2 more seats not filled on the truck. Weiss turned on the ignition of the rescue as the truck pulled out with a full crew. Blake got in the officer's seat next to Weiss as they waited for more people to get on the rescue.

Within 5 minutes, the rescue was full, and Blake radioed, "Rescue 201 to Fire Alarm."

"Rescue 201," the dispatcher replied.

"En route with a crew of 9, at least 5 interior." Blake did not know about the status of the 3 firefighters riding the rear step.

About 30 seconds later, Truck 201 pulled up. By now, Ambulance 201 and Car 5 had radioed for 2 more ambulances to be dispatched from the Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad. Their station's air horns could be heard blasting away to summon their volunteers as the interior firefighters of the truck's crew got masked up.

Weiss and Yang both grabbed carbon monoxide meters from a compartment on the truck after putting their masks on. Weiss said, "It doesn't sound too good. They got about 4 patients possibly sickened by carbon monoxide."

They then walked inside the building with several other firefighters. Hermann led the group. He said, "Ladies and gents, one of the patients said he thinks it could be a boiler in the basement of this apartment building. The basement door is near the elevators. I want Weiss and Yang to go and check CO levels down there. Everyone else follow me to find more patients in the apartments."

Weiss and Yang nodded. Yang said, "Alrighty then. Let's go to the basement."

As soon as they opened the door, stepped into the basement, and turned their meters on, they spiked and began to beep. Weiss said, "Holy shit! There's like 400 parts per million just in this doorway!"

As they traveled down to the basement floor, the uneasily watched as the ppm of carbon monoxide gradually increased. Yang said, "It went up to 800 ppm just by stepping onto the floor! This is bad!"

As they looked around, they heard the beeping of carbon monoxide alarms going off. It didn't take them long to get to the boiler room.

As they approached the door, Weiss said, "Wait, Yang. Before we go in, we should call for more firefighters." Yang nodded. Weiss got her radio and said, "Vigilant Basement Interior to Vigilant Command."

Captain Kirkridge replied, "Go ahead."

"Can you send Rescue 201's interior crew down to the basement? We're getting really high ratings down here."

"10-4. We'll send them down."

Yang checked her meter again and gasped. "I got almost 1,600!"

"My God," Weiss replied in shock. "I can only imagine the readings in the boiler room." She then opened the door.

Immediately, the readings spiked to 2,700 ppm, shockingly high. Yang said, "Oh my God..."

Weiss said, "I pray nobody was down here at this time of night. If they were, they're probably dead now."

"Let's pray nobody used a match either. After 1,000 ppm, carbon monoxide's flammable." Yang looked around the room and saw the various boilers used to heat the water of the building. "Well, we can start making this better by shutting off these boilers."

"Good idea." Weiss then walked over to one of them and looked around for the control panel. "Aha!" She then pressed the 'off' button on the panel, shutting that boiler down. "Now, let's repeat."

* * *

About 20 minutes later, Yang and Weiss emerged from the building, having turned off all the boilers and opened several doors and windows to air the basement out. They had about 4 minutes of air left when they did.

Ruby and Blake were outside, helping to direct residents to a triage area. By now, Incident Command had counted at least 35 patients, making this a mass casualty incident.

Yang and Weiss walked up to them after they took their masks and helmets off. Yang said to an exhausted Ruby, "How's triage, sis?"

"Tiring," Ruby replied as she yawned, holding a clipboard and 4 markers. "I dabbed the foreheads of like 15 different people in 10 minutes with the triage colour markers, all while having to console them and take down info about them. Blake here directed them to the tarps."

"That was fun," Blake said sarcastically. "I had a few guys faint on me while I had to carry them to the tarps. It didn't matter whether or not they were green, yellow, red, or black." She then sighed. "I had someone helping me earlier, but I don't know where they ran off too."

"Sorry I left," George suddenly said as he walked to the group. "I had to go change out SCBAs for my company, Blake." He then turned and saw Yang. He immediately ran over as the couple embraced. "Yang!"

"George!" The couple then kissed and split from each other. "So, I presume you didn't make the engine?"

"Nope. I had to grab my gear at the station and drive down here by myself." His tone then changed to one of annoyance. "It was a God damn nightmare getting through traffic to the station and to the scene, which is surprising at night. This one lady cut me off like it was nothing. I know my blue lights are just a courtesy, but come on."

"Sorry you had to go through that," Yang replied. "I remember this one time before I joined the fire department back in 2019 when some guy talking on his cellphone and eating _at the same fucking time _cut me off and did an illegal turn. I let him have a piece of my mind when we both came up at an intersection later. And you wanna know what he was still doing? _Talking on his cell and eating at the same fucking time. _I ended up causing a huge cramp in my right arm."

"Let me guess," Weiss said. "The spot where it was cut off and then reattached?"

"Yup." Yang then pulled up the right sleeve of her long coat, exposing the sword scars and surgical scars. "The doc said I may have overexerted something there. I got it all patched up though. By the way, thanks for grabbing the severed half of my right arm after Adam cut it off, Blake."

Blake smiled and gave a thumps up, saying, "Don't mention it." She then laughed.

Ruby, however, suddenly began to stare off into the distance, as if watching something nobody else could see.

Weiss looked at her, confused, and said, "Uhhhh... Ruby? You alright there?"

Yang waved her arm in front of Ruby's face, saying, "Uhhhh... Ruby, can you hear me?"

As Ruby stared into the distance, she began mumbling something to herself that nobody else could understand. Then, she yelled, "No! Stay away from her!"

As the redhead fell backwards onto the ground, Yang, Blake, and Weiss all rushed to her, helping to pick her up as she began to return to her senses. Weiss said, "Holy shit! Ruby, what was that?!"

"I... I don't know..." Ruby then sighed. "All of a sudden, it felt like I was... Back there..."

Blake asked, "Back where?"

"Beacon during the attack..."

"Oh boy," Yang replied. "Look, Ruby, don't worry about it anymore. That was a long time ago. The White Fang may be still around, but Cinder and her cronies are long gone." She then patted Ruby's back. "Now, how about we relax after this call?"

"Yeah. I guess that would be nice." The redhead them sighed. "That was a doozy."

Yang looked in the distance and thought to herself, _"It's obvious Ruby could use some help, but I fear that if she seeks it, she could get booted from the Hunting Corps or art least demoted. God, what should I do? My own little sister could have some disorder, and I'm just standing here doing nothing out of fear!"_


	29. Season 2: Part 9

_**January 7, 2021**_

Team RWBY was 2 days into a 3-day mission to take out a small patch of Grimm messing around with a power station in a town to the north of Vale City, as well as survey a site for a potential expansion of the power station.

Ruby, now a Lieutenant, commanded a whole platoon. As she monitored a computer program tracking Grimm sightings, Jaune walked into the room.

Immediately, everyone stood up and saluted him, including Ruby. Jaune then said, "At ease, everyone." Ruby then went back to her computer. Jaune said to her, "Ruby- Er I mean Lieutenant Rose?"

"Yes, sir?"

"I got a mission for your whole platoon. Order them back to base camp." Jaune then walked over and handed her a folder with the mission details.

"Got it," Ruby quickly replied as she grabbed a radio. She then transmitted, "Base camp to all members of Ruby's Platoon, report back here for a briefing."

Within 10 minutes, all 32 platoon members reported to the base camp's briefing room. Ruby looked a bit nervous, this being her first time addressing a large amount of people in the military.

Yang noticed this as she walked in. She went over to Ruby and said, "C'mon, sis, don't be nervous. Everyone here loves you. You'll be fine." She then patted the redhead on the back.

"Thanks, Yang." Ruby then sighed and went up to the podium.

Weiss thought to herself, _"You got this, Ruby."_

"Now, I have been assigned a mission by your new Captain, Jaune Arc. First off, I would like to congratulate him for his recent promotion." The crowd then clapped for Jaune, who smiled and gave a thumbs up to Ruby. "Now, our mission is as follows." She then turned on a projector and showed a presentation to the platoon. "We have tracked the problematic grimm to a nest about 5 miles to the east of the power station." She then highlighted the suspected nest with a red pointer. "Our mission is simple, destroy it. Once that is done, we will head back here. Destroy any and all grimm you encounter on the way to and from the nest."

Blake smiled and thought to herself, _"Nice job."_

"Now, let's move out."

* * *

On the way to the nest, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and Blake all conversed about life. They congratulated Ruby for her promotion to that of a commissioned officer. "You know," Yang said. "That means we gotta call my sis here "ma'am" now."

"I mean," Ruby replied. "Only at official stuff like meetings. I'm not gonna berate and report my own closest best friends and my own sister for just calling me Ruby in the field or off-duty."

Suddenly, Weiss shushed everyone as they all heard a rustling coming from a nearby tree. Everyone locked their eyes at said tree, waiting for something to pop out from it.

As they waited, Ruby's blood began pumping as she tightened her grip on Crescent Rose. She thought to herself, _"C'mon, let's go. Let's go. Come out and fight!"_

Then, a boarbatusk emerged, charging full speed at the team. Ruby simply aimed Crescent Rose's sniper at the monster and fired 2 shots at it.

As soon as the shots were fired, the boarbatusk fell to the ground and dissipated, having been killed. Weiss said, "Nice job."

Then, they heard several other grimm snarling nearby. Blake said, "The nest must be nearby. Let's kill it!"

Ruby and Yang were the first to run towards the direction of the snarling. Yang said, "Time to kick some ass!"

When they found the nest, they saw 3 beowolfs and a king taijitu all looking at them, surprised. Ruby simply smiled as she changed Crescent Rose into a scythe and jumped up into the sky. She then fell and swung at the head of the king taijitu, cutting it off with ease. As she landed, the beast began to dissipate.

The beowolves all looked at each other and then looked back at the team, wondering whether to run or fight. Yang would end up making that decision for them as she jumped into the sky and landed on the head of one of them. Then, she fired off several shots of Ember Celica, causing the beowulf to scream in pain.

Soon afterwards, Weiss charged at the beowolf, Myrtenaster charged with dust, and slashed the chest of the beowulf, killing it. As it dissipated, Weiss said, "Good job, Yang."

Yang hi-fived Weiss and replied, "You too. Now, let's go get those other beowolves."

"That won't be necessary," Blake said as she ran past them to fight a beowolf trying to run away.

The monster turned around and saw Blake charge at him before she jumped up and landed on his head, sinking the blade of Gambol Shroud deep into his skull. As the beast wailed and shook, trying to throw Blake off, Blake held on and grabbed a grenade on her belt. She said as she held it, "Now where do I put this..."

She then found the perfect spot. She tore the pin off with her teeth, causing her to wince in pain afterwards, and attached the grenade to the wound she had made on the beast. She said, "Farewell, beast!"

Soon after she jumped off with Gambol Shroud, the grenade exploded, killing the beowolf. Then, Weiss shouted, "Behind you!"

Blake looked behind her and found a beowolf about to land on her. She quickly ducked out of the way and used Gambol Shroud to slash open its chest, causing the beowolf to fall to the ground and die seconds later.

As the beowolves evaporated, Ruby wiped her forehead, wiping off sweat and some blood from a cut, and said, "Job well done, team." She then reached for a small medical bag she was also carrying and opened it, grabbing a bandage to wrap around her head.

Weiss patted Blake on the back and said, "Close call, huh?"

"You got that right," Blake said as she retracted Gambol Shroud's blade. "Say, you should use Myrtenaster at fires more often."

"Ehhhh, I haven't really had the time to grab it and bring it with me. Besides, it's not like Myrtenaster is absolutely necessary at a call."

* * *

_**January 9, 2021**_

"So," Yang said as Team RWBY and Theresa walked into the fire academy's classroom building. "They passed the motion to build the new expansion?"

"Yep," Theresa replied. "In total, there were 46 yes's and 22 no's. The captain is going to secure the purchase of the abandoned building next door. Nobody's either had a business there or lived there for 3 years."

Meanwhile, Weiss was beaming with excitement. "I'm so glad my sister got elected to Treasurer!" It was easy to tell she was hyped, as the company had just sworn in the new social officers a few hours ago, after having voted them in on Wednesday. "First step, Treasurer. Next step, Lieutenant. Soon, she'll be captain. And then, it'll be my turn hopefully."

Blake replied, "Slow down there. You still got a while to go, Weiss. You know, usually, I'd expect you to tell us that, not us telling you that." She then laughed.

Ruby replied, "You got that right." She then sighed and smiled. "Delwyn invited me to a really important gala coming up. I have no idea what to wear, but I'll make sure it looks good."

Yang replied, "He invited you to a gala?! No way!"

"To be honest, I am kinda worried. Delwyn says he is not really respected amongst his closest advisors due to his age. I don't know how they'll react to me."

Yang scoffed, saying, "Who wouldn't respect the king? I don't give a damn if he's older or younger than me."

* * *

**_January 11, 2021_**

As Weiss was cleaning a chainsaw on Truck 201, she heard footsteps around her. She immediately looked up, wondering where they came from.

However, there was no one around her.

As she went back to cleaning the chainsaw, a voice behind her suddenly said, "Long time, no see, Schnee."

Weiss jumped and yelped in fright before quickly turning around. She said, "Pyrrha, you scared me!"

Pyrrha's ghost was back, still deformed due to the injuries she sustained in her fatal car accident.

"Sorry about that," the ghost girl replied. "Now, now, this isn't because I got a bone to pick with you over Jaune." As she said that, she pointed at her right humerus bone, broken in half and sticking out of her arm.

"Ha ha," Weiss sarcastically said. "Real funny."

"Shut up," Pyrrha jokingly replied. "It's not like I'm the master of puns like Yang. Anyways, I came here to warn you of something."

"Warn me?" Weiss seemed confused as she put the chainsaw down on the floor. "Warn me about what?"

"Remember that pedo teacher Jaune helped put away?"

"Yeah, I remember that sick fuck. What about her?"

"She belonged to a powerful business family that controls a big chunk of the construction industry in the city." Pyrrha then sighed. "She was also a member of the Mistralian Mob in Vale through her parents, which has a big grip on the company her family owned, Parthenon Fabrication and Carpentry. My family got on the wrong side of them when they expanded operations into Mistral."

"What happened?"

"My uncle was murdered by them when I was 10," Pyrrha's tone became very sombre. "Because my father was out a lot on business trips, he would often help take care of me. He was like a second father to me. I've never really been the same since he died. It was that incident that made want to become a huntress." She then changed her tone of voice. "I wanted to stop those motherfuckers from killing anyone else!" After a brief pause, Pyrrha began crying. "But... I can't..."

Weiss, growing concerned, said, "Pyrrha, what... You're saying they'll come after me? Pyrrha..."

"I'm dead, Weiss. I came here to warn you that they will attack you." Pyrrha then wiped her eyes and sniffled. "However, you can stop them before that. I want you to take down her family and her company."

"Me? I may be a heiress, and a damn important one at that, but I don't have that much power."

"Not just you, dumbass." Pyrrha pointed at Ruby's gear locker. "Do it with your team. In fact, you could bring along Jaune, Ren, and Nora for the ride too. Together, you are a lot more powerful."

"Fine. Tell me where I can get more info, though."

Pyrrha nodded and reached into her pocket, pulling out a bloodstained piece of paper and a pen. "I was carrying this when the car accident happened." She then began writing down stuff on the piece of paper. Once she was done, she handed it to Weiss. "Do NOT lose this, Weiss. This will give you all the info you could ever want on those bastards. Good luck, and godspeed."

Weiss looked at the note before looking back up. However, by the time she did, Pyrrha was gone. "Here we go."

Then, a call came in. Pagers rang across the station and the siren started up as Weiss ran to her gear locker and stuffed the note in her locker before taking her shoes off and untying her hair. As several other firefighters ran into the bay room from the rec room and a few others slid down the fire pole from the second floor, Weiss put her high boots on and tucked her hair into her turnout coat. Once she strapped in her helmet, she quickly ran to Truck 201 and jumped into the driver's seat.

Her father Hermann jumped into the officer's seat as Weiss started the truck up and they waited for more firefighters to show up at the station. He said, "You got the address, right?"

"Of course, dad. When do I ever forget the address of a call?"

"Well, there was that one time for the really fat guy stuck in a bathtub in 2019..."

"That was one time," Weiss replied. "One time. Besides, it's not like it was a really urgent call."

As the ambulance pulled out first, Car 5 sped past the station, lights blazing and siren blaring. After they passed, several firefighters ran across the street into the station.

As Hermann put on his SCBA in the officer's seat, he asked, "Anyone on scene yet?"

"Nope," Weiss said. "Last I heard, Fire Alarm told us the caller was trapped in her apartment, and a second call was coming in for smoke showing from the outside, so it's probably gonna be a Code 99 eventually."

"Alrighty then, looks like we'll be going to work."

* * *

_**CHANGES TO THE RADIO SYSTEM OF THE VCFD EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 2, 2020:**_

Paging:

Channel 1: 460.5750 (Districts 1, 5, 6, and 7)  
Channel 2: 460.5250 (Districts, 2, 3, and 4)

Dispatch:

(Same as before, see Season 1, Part 3)

Fireground: (New Third Channels added to each district)

D1: 453.1000/453.1250/453.1500  
D2: 453.2000/453.2250/453.2500  
D3: 453.3000/453.3250/453.3500  
D4: 453.4000/453.4250/453.4500  
D5: 453.5000/453.5250/453.5500  
D6: 453.6000/453.6250/453.6500  
D7: 453.7000/453.7250/453.7500

Special Operations:

HIGH RISE OPS: 486.1125/486.7125  
MASS CASUALTY OPS: 485.1875/485.7825  
ADMINISTRATIVE: 487.2625/487.1375/487.2025/487.2925


	30. Season 2: Part 10

_**January 13, 2021**_

On this cold Wednesday morning, Weiss was once again at the firehouse, this time with Jaune. Him and her were both researching on a computer in the officer's room about the gang Pyrrha had talked to Weiss about, although Jaune had been told that a threatening note had been left at her doorstep instead since Weiss did not want anyone knowing about the whole "ghost Pyrrha" deal. She had also explained the note away by saying she had found it amongst Pyrrha's belongings on her body shortly after she was killed in the car accident in 2019.

"Hey Weiss," Jaune said as he brought a stack of freshly-printed papers. "I found some really interesting shit online about them."

Weiss replied, "Why thank you." She then grabbed the papers and began reading them. They were news articles on alleged mob hits in the city. One thing that always kept popping up from alleged hits in the past 2 years was that the suspect was brown-haired, short-haired, and spoke in a female voice, though they appeared to be a man. They appeared to be no more than 18 when the first hit they allegedly did occurred in 2018. "Huh... This one hitman in particular seems to be odd..."

Suddenly, they heard screams coming from outside. Jaune said, "What the hell is that?"

They both got up and ran outside as several other firefighters in the station walked out to see what was going on. As Weiss and Jaune looked out, gunshots suddenly rang out, and they both drew self-defence pistols they had been issued by the Hunting Corps.

They appeared to come from a building across the street, a 4-storey mixed-use building with a bakery on the first floor. Weiss said to the other firefighters behind her, "Stand back! Whoever's in there has a gun!"

Suddenly, a man wearing a bloodied white t-shirt and jeans came out. Weiss yelled, "Drop your weapon!"

"Put the gun down," yelled Jaune. Then, the man charged at them, his gun aimed right at them.

Neither of them wasted any time pulling the trigger and firing at the charging man, pelting his body with 7 bullets as 2 police cars sped up to the scene. Weiss and Jaune quickly put their pistols back into their holsters as 4 police officers stepped out and ran into the bakery.

However, one of them suddenly stopped as he looked at the face of the man who had apparently shot up the bakery. She said, "Holy fucking shit, this guy's one of our own!"

Weiss, confused, said, "What?! He shot up that bakery!"

Then, 3 more police cars pulled up. As more officers arrived, the firefighters from Vigilant ran out, carrying EMS gear as the pager and siren tones went out for 4 companies and the assistant district chief for a mass casualty box alarm.

Jaune said to himself, "What the everloving fuck just happened?"

* * *

"At 9:45 A.M.," a newscaster announced on VNN on a T.V. at the Fire Alarm Office, where Blake was working the telephones. "Shots rang out at a bakery near the Vigilant Fire Company station. We first broke the news at 9:49, and it is currently 11:28." The screen then flashed to an impending press conference. "As you can see, a press conference by the Commissioner of the VCPD is about to begin."

The Commissioner of the Vale City Police Department, Cordovan DeLaney, a 31-year-veteran of the department, began by saying, "It is with a heavy heart that I announce the deaths of 8 people at this tragic event, including the shooter and an off-duty police officer. We also have 5 injured persons being treated at local hospitals at this time." He then sighed. "Today, we got the shock of our lives here at the Vale City Police Department when we found out that the shooter was one of our own." Visible gasps echoed through the audience of journalists.

Blake, shocked, said, watching the T.V., "No way..."

"His name was Daniel Claret. He was an 8-year veteran of the force. He was on 1-month paid medical leave due to high levels of stress and emotional discomfort due to the deaths of several police officers that he knew last year. He did _not _use his service weapon in this attack. He used a privately owned and legally purchased handgun he had bought 5 years prior for his wife."

A journalist in the audience said, "Do you have any idea what the motive is at this point?"

"Well, we did find a note on his body. I will not get into too much detail yet, but in general terms, we believe the shooter may have targeted the bakery because it was owned by and frequented by faunus. Due to Officer Claret's psychological and mental problems stemming from last years's incidents, we can deduce that he may have snapped and either began planning this out, or he did it on the fly."

"Has he visited this bakery before, either on the job or off-duty?"

"That, we do not know at this time."

"What is the identity of the off-duty officer who was shot, and were they a faunus?"

"The off-duty officer shot by Officer Claret was Officer Ryan Hanes, and yes, he was a bear-eared faunus. He was a 4-year veteran of the force. According to witnesses, he did unholster his service weapon that he kept with him, but he was shot before he could fire at Officer Claret."

As the press conference continued on, Blake said, "Oh my God... The White Fang is finally getting what it wants: A war between police and faunus."

Another dispatcher, a human, said, "So this is how progress in race relations dies..."

* * *

Later that night, the weekly meeting was held as scheduled, but before the meeting, a moment of silence was held for the victims of the attack.

"Let's begin," Captain Alfred Kirkridge said to start off the meeting. "Company President, you may begin."

"Thank you," Michael Kirkridge, Alfred's son, replied. "First order of business... We have no new applicants for membership..." He then sifted through papers. "We have a..."

As he continued on, Weiss looked around the room and noticed Ruby was not present, something that was very unusual for the girl to do. _"Huh," _the heiress thought to herself. _"She's always here. Where is she?"_ She then stood up and quietly said to her father next to her, "I gotta run." She then folded up her chair, put it back, and walked downstairs. Yang and Blake wondered where she was going.

Yang poked Blake and whispered, "Where's Weiss going?"

"No idea," the fanus whispered back. "But for some reason, Ruby isn't here."

"That is odd... Don't worry, she'll be fine."

As she walked out of the firehouse, she got a call on her cellphone. When she looked at the number, she was confused as to who it was. She decided to answer it anyways and said, "Hello, this is Weiss Schnee."

"This is the King of Vale," the voice said on the other end of the line.

"Delwyn? What's going on?"

"I'm at Ruby's apartment," Delwyn replied. "She kinda needs someone to talk to."

Weiss paused for a second before saying, "I'll be right over." She then quickly hung up and ran to the apartment building where they all lived.

After running up a flight of stairs, she ran down a hallway and stopped right at Ruby, Yang, and as of recently, George's apartment. She used a key she had to open the door, running in and yelling, "Ruby!"

Delwyn said from Ruby's bedroom, "In here, Weiss!"

The heiress quickly ran to Ruby's room and saw Ruby sitting on the bed next to Delwyn, her eyes red and her nose sniffling. She said, "Weiss..."

"Ruby, what the hell is going on?!" Weiss got down on her knees in front of Ruby and held her hands, deeply concerned.

"I had... I had a breakdown..." Ruby suddenly began crying again, her head buried into Delwyn's chest.

The King, now having to deal with Ruby's personal issues and the issues facing Vale, said, "She called me about 45 minutes ago, crying and saying she needed someone to talk to because something happened."

"What's up? What happened?" Weiss then got adamant. "Tell me, Ruby! Please!"

"Raven... Raven Branwen is dead..." Ruby then began crying again.

Weiss stood up, silent and shocked. She then said to herself, "Raven... Dead..." She then realized something. "What happened to her?!"

Delwyn replied, "Ruby's dad found her severed head at the Patch Life Squad station with a note. Taiyang called Ruby first before calling the police. He said the note was from the Mistralian Mob or something. It mentioned you, in fact, Weiss, and it mentioned your boyfriend Jaune too."

Weiss then worryingly said, "Oh no... They're coming for us..." She then began dialing Yang on her phone. "I'm calling Yang first. She deserves to know about her mother's death."

* * *

About 3 hours later, Team RWBY, Team JNR, Delwyn plus 2 bodyguards, Sun, and George arrived at Taiyang's house. The rest of the gang left Ruby, Yang and Taiyang in his bedroom alone to let them mourn Raven's death. Sun said to the rest of the gang, "This has been a wild night."

"More like a wild day," Blake replied. "I had to work the phones for that shooting earlier today. That was NOT fun, let's just say that."

Delwyn then said to his bodyguards, "You 2 can stand outside the house. Thank you."

They both nodded and left. Jaune then said, "So, Weiss, should we tell them?"

"We might as well." Weiss then sighed and held Jaune's hand. "Guys, I found a note on Pyrrha's body in the car accident. It has details on the locations of several high-ranks in the Mistralian Mob in Vale. Her uncle was murdered by them back in Mistral, and she wanted revenge before she was killed." She then grabbed the note from her pocket. "It is blood-stained, but legible."

Ren said, "Then let's go hunt these mobsters down." Nora nodded in agreement.

Delwyn said, "Listen, technically, as your King and Sovereign and all that shit, I'm supposed to report any criminal activity, buuut... Since my girlfriend was so hurt by this, I'll let you all go on some vigilante justice without me ratting you all out."

"Same here," George replied. "Hell, I'll join in. I'd love to bash some skulls in after what this did to Yang." One could tell George was angered by the brutal murder.

Then, the door opened, and Yang stepped out, her eyes reddened, her pupils red, and her shirt stained with tears. She said, "The police have recovered what they think is the rest of her body near the Signal Fire Company firehouse. Uncle Qrow is coming back early from a deployment and will be here tomorrow." She then sniffled. "Does anyone, ANYONE, have any info on the people who did this to my mother?"

Weiss held up the note, saying, "Pyrrha had this on her when she died in 2019. Her uncle was murdered by the Mistralian Mob when she was a young girl. That was the reason why she became a huntress." She then put the note down on a nearby table. "She wanted to go after the people on that note so badly for her entire teenage life and beyond. Now, we are going to take on the job."

"For her," Jaune said. "For Raven, and for everyone this mob has hurt."

Delwyn then spoke up, saying, "Remember, you will all be doing this clandestinely. Nobody in law enforcement can hear about this."

Ruby and Taiyang then both stepped out and said, "We're in."

Nora said, "Alright team, let's break some legs."

Delwyn then walked up to Ruby and held her hands, saying, "Ruby, I will do everything in my power to make sure these assholes are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if you leave any of them alive when you're done. I'll also make sure to clear your names." They then kissed. "I love you, Ruby Rose."

Ruby began crying again, saying, "I love you..." Delwyn hugged her, holding her head to his chest.

Sun said to Blake, "Ready to take down another criminal mastermind and organization?"

"Of course," Blake eagerly replied before the 2 of them fist-bumped. "We got 1 down for the count, and we can definitely make it 2."

Taiyang then thought to himself, _"My daughters are growing up so fast. Summer would be so proud. I know Raven was."_

* * *

_**The night before**  
_

Taiyang and Raven fell back into bed after just finishing a passionate sex session. They both smiled and laughed. Taiyang said to Raven, "That was fantastic as always."

"My God," Raven replied. "I remember when we practically fucked each other's brains out in Beacon." She then sighed. "God, I miss those days in many ways. Shit was so much simpler, Tai, sooooo much simpler."

"Yeah, it sure was." The sweaty Taiyang then paused. "Should we tell Ruby and Yang about us?"

Raven's expression suddenly turned from happy to concerned. "Wait, what?"

"Should we tell them, Ray?" Taiyang then sat up and looked at his ex-wife. "I mean, we've been back together for like 2 months now without telling a soul apart from Qrow, and he took it pretty well."

"But... Ruby and Yang are different than my brother," Raven replied, also sitting up and looking at Taiyang. "I've been back in my daughter's life and starting to get into my stepdaughter's life ever since that Battle of Beacon shit happened. It was a rocky road at first, but we managed to repair the damage." She then sighed. "I practically walked out on my own daughter in divorce court when she was literally a year and a half old. To top it off, I got a job in intelligence that required me to stay away from my family. I mean, I don't regret divorcing you back then, no offense."

"None taken," Taiyang replied before giving Raven a quick kiss on the lips.

She then laughed before continuing, "But I deeply regret the fact that I decided to sign away everything I had to do with Yang and my family. I mean, I did leave it all in great hands, no doubt. Summer was an awesome step-mother, and you have some very big balls to successfully raise 2 daughters on your own after she died." She then sighed. "I just... I wish I had the capability to be there more for them, including Ruby. I had to miss out on so much because Remnant can't get its shit together." She then began to tear up. "I missed birthdays, graduations, battles, family gatherings, everything." She then began to cry.

"Ray, please," Taiyang said to her. "You were dealt a piece of shit hand of cards, and you did what you could. Without you, both of my daughters would be dead right now. Besides, all that is in the past. We're gonna work towards a new future, a future where the Branwen family, the Xiao Long family, and the Rose family will all live in harmony." He then hugged Raven tight.

"Thanks," Raven replied. "You know, I need to rejoin Patch First Aid and Signal Fire." The 2 of them then laughed. "I wonder if they both still have my old gear. God, I haven't used it since like 98 or 99." They both then laughed. "I'm proud of Ruby and Yang. They're just like us: They're damn good at hunting grimm and fighting fire, Tai."

"You got that right, Ray. You got that right."


	31. Season 2: Part 11

_**January 17, 2021  
**_

After Raven's funeral, Team RWBY, Qrow, and Taiyang all hung out at the Signal Fire Company fire station. Raven's funeral procession had carried her coffin and her old turnouts from both SFC and PFAS from Patch First Aid Squad to Signal Fire Company on the back of an engine from the SFC. Jaune and Sun had to go do hunting training, Delwyn IV had to go back and conduct government business, and George had to go work overtime, hence why they left after the funeral.

"So," Qrow said to the gang, tired out from the day as he sat down at the station's bar alongside Team RWBY and Taiyang. "Have you girls done any researching in between my sister's death and today?"

"We sure have," Weiss replied. "I've found the location of a mob safehouse in the city through some... Tense... Methods. By tense methods, I mean I had some of the Schnee Dust Corporation's guards track down several mobsters and they beat the information out of them. My father and my sister both approved."

"Damn," Yang said. "You know how to get shit done, and done fast."

Ruby said, "When will we get to confront these mobsters ourselves?"

"We'll do it on Tuesday night this week." The heiress then used a mapping app her Scroll phone to show the rest of the group the location of the safehouse. "We will meet across the street from this place at 7 P.M. Bring all weapons you own. This conversation cannot leave this room."

"You got it," Taiyang replied. "Qrow, you still got that big weapons stash at your place?"

"Why wouldn't I, Tai?" He then laughed. "I always knew I'd have to use it one day. It's unfortunate that the reason for it is Ray getting her head chopped off."

* * *

Later, Yang and Ruby were at the firehouse, exercising in the small gym upstairs. As Yang ran on the treadmill, Ruby lifted some weights.

Ruby then got up and said, "I'm gonna go get some water." Yang silently nodded as she kept running, sweat trickling down her body.

As she went into the upstairs kitchen to grab a water bottle, she decided to check out the bunk room for some reason. After grabbing a bottle from the refrigerator, she walked to the bunk room area. As she did, she heard rustling, which was odd since the 2 paid firefighters were downstairs at the time. She called out, "Hello?"

Then, the rustling stopped, and frantic activity began as Ruby walked in. Staring back at Ruby were none other than Theresa and Denis, who had been making out in the room. Denis said as he handed Theresa her jacket, "Uhhh... Hi, Ruby..."

Ruby replied, "You 2 were making out, I presume?"

"Well," Theresa said. "Yeah. But... Uhh... Denis here began to take my jacket off and then we began to feel each other up and stuff so, yeah..."

"That's all I need to know." Ruby then sighed. "How old are you 2 again?"

"I'm 15 now and Denis is 13..."

"Aren't you 2 a little young for that stuff? I mean, I never had sex until last year. My sister was 14 and a half when she first did it." Ruby then sat down on a bed in the bunk room. "13 is pushing it, especially since you'll be turning 16 soon, Theresa, and Denis won't be 14 until later this year."

"Well you shouldn't really get involved in a couple's life in that way," Theresa replied in a calm but still annoyed tone. "I would never do anything to Denis if he felt uncomfortable about it, and he wouldn't do anything to me if I felt uncomfortable about it. We communicate well, Ruby."

The redhead then sighed. "That's good, but... You may just piss off or creep out some people with the age discrepancy, especially with what you 2 were doing. I mean, I'm not saying you should let other people dictate every aspect of your romantic and sexual life."

"I can see why," Denis replied. "Still, I don't care if strangers don't approve." Theresa nodded in agreement.

"I agree," Ruby said back. "But, just be careful, okay? Don't get pregnant, and I assume you're both virgins, so STDs are kind of an impossibility right now. Also, I wouldn't tell your parents about this."

"Of course not," Theresa replied, brushing some of her dyed-blond hair. "We'd use condoms if we ever went that far, and, don't tell my parents, but I bought some emergency birth control pills just in case. I already have birth control prescription pills since my periods can be painful as fuck."

"I took those once, actually, when I first got my period when I was like 12 and a half. They were painful for a few years, and then I stopped taking them after my second year at Beacon because the pain lessened and I wasn't having sex of any kind with anyone at the time." Ruby then sighed and drank some water from her bottle. "Well, I gotta go back to exercising."

Denis said to Ruby, "Hey Rose... Thanks..."

"No problem, Denny."

Then, the pagers rang, and the siren tone also played out. As the siren started up, the 3 of them got up and ran to the fire pole to go downstairs.

When they got down with Yang, Ruby said to the gang, "Wanna join the paid guys on the ambulance for this one?"

"Sure," Yang replied as she hurriedly pulled her high boots up and grabbed her coat.

Eventually, the 4 of them jumped aboard Ambulance 201, with Ruby and Yang sitting in the back and Theresa and Denis sitting in the cab behind the paid firefighter-paramedics. The call was for a Bravo-response traffic accident with 1 injured occupant and leaking fluids.

As Ambulance 201 pulled out, several other volunteer firefighters ran into the station to get on Rescue 201. Theresa waved at them, smiling because she got on the first truck out.

About 4 and 1/2 minutes of driving through heavy traffic later, Ambulance 201 arrived alongside Car 5. The 6 firefighters on board climbed out. Yang and Ruby emerged from the back, pulling the ambulance's stretcher, which carried several blue and orange bags of BLS and ALS gear. The 2 paid guys walked over and grabbed the bags off of the stretcher while Ruby and Yang put medical gloves on.

Captain Kirkridge pointed to Theresa and Denis and said, "You 2 probies, grab some brooms and start sweeping down the glass and debris on the road. When the rescue gets here, we'll start putting kitty litter on the leaking gas."

"Got it," Denis said as he put his fire gloves on. Theresa walked over to a compartment on the ambulance to grab 2 brooms.

Meanwhile, the paid guys, Ruby, and Yang attended to the injured driver, who had a minor laceration to the forehead and leg pain. Ruby and Yang sat her down as the paid guys opened the BLS bag to begin doing vitals. The driver said, "A dog just darted out in front of me. I missed the dog, but I hit a few newspaper vending machines."

The paid lieutenant on the ambulance said, "Okay sir, just relax. I gotta take your blood pressure first." He then motioned for Yang to put a cuff on the driver's right arm.

Yang nodded and grabbed a blood pressure measuring tool. She then put the cuff around the driver's arm, saying, "This won't take long at all, sir." She then took off her helmet to get a better look at the patient.

As Ruby and a paid firefighter-medic began pumping the cuff's bag, Rescue 201 arrived on scene. A police officer walked over with a clipboard and a sheet and said, "I'll get info on the accident once this is all set, alright?"

The driver nodded and the paid lieutenant said, "Got it. He said he swerved to avoid a dog and while he was successful, he did hit some newspaper vending machines."

The officer wrote down on his clipboard and said, "Thanks."

Ruby thought to herself, _"Dogs are cute and shit, but if it comes down to me and a random dog on the road, I'd rather go with me. This guy's an idiot for swerving."_

* * *

_**January 19, 2021**_

At 7, Team RWBY, Qrow, and Taiyang all met in front of the mob safehouse's alleyway entrance. Weiss said to the group, "Remember everyone, be careful. We don't know what's in there. Stay quiet."

Qrow replied, "Of course, Ice Princess. You can count on it."

"Haha," Weiss said sarcastically. "Real funny."

Taiyang then readied his own weapon, a golden, 5-round, 8-gauge shotgun with an axe attached to the end. He was known for also utilising martial arts in his fighting style, hence why he also usually used brass knuckles and a serrated combat knife, both of which he brought as well, alongside a regular 12-round pistol. He said, "Let's get these bastards hard and fast." He then paused. "And yes, I know that could be a sex joke, especially given my past."

The whole group laughed in response, including Taiyang. Ruby then sighed and said, "Everyone, please, stay safe."

Blake put her hand on Ruby's shoulder and said, "We will." They both then smiled.

Yang then stepped up and said, "I'll get the door." She then cocked her Ember Celicas and walked up to the padlocked alleyway entrance to the warehouse. "Boom."

She fired off 2 rounds, one from each hand, lighting up the narrow alleyway and blowing the padlock away with ease.

She then calmly opened the double doors and said, "As you wish." The rest of the group nodded in response and walked in. "Let's get them."

A man suddenly ran up to them from within the warehouse, saying, "Who the hell are you people?!"

Weiss got out her Myrtenaster and pointed it right at the man's face, saying, "Is the Kolettis group located here?" She was referring to the Kolettis family, the mob family they were after.

"Uhhhh... What Kolettis group?" It was obvious the man was lying. "I don't know of them..."

Weiss then put down her Myrtenaster and said, "Okay then. Taiyang, talk to him."

Taiyang nodded, dropped his main hunting weapon, and walked up to the man, grabbing him by his shirt collar and hosting him in the air. He then pointed his pistol at the man's head with his other arm and said, "You're the worst fucking liar I've ever heard. You know exactly who we're talking about. Tell me if the Kolettis group is here or not NOW, or I'll blow your fucking brains out, I swear."

Qrow said, "Oh boy... I've never seen you that murderous before, Tai."

Ruby thought to herself, _"Dad seems really angry. Then again, with Raven's death, I would be too."_

"Ulp," the man said. "Uhhh..."

"DO IT," Taiyang screamed at him as he began to squeeze on the trigger of his gun.

"FINE! I'LL TELL YOU! PLEASE, DON'T KILL ME!" The man began sobbing as Taiyang lowered him down.

"Glad we had that talk. Now, tell me everything you know." Taiyang's demeanour now had changed.

"Yes, the Kolettis family keeps weapons and secret info here and shit," the man said between sobs. "Please, don't kill me. I won't say a word."

"Too late," a voice suddenly said from the same direction the man had first walked from.

Then, a gunshot rang out, a bullet narrowly missing Taiyang as it struck the man he had held in the head, killing him instantly. The rest of the group readied their weapons.

"He said too much," said another man, dressed in a black suit and tie and wielding an AR-7 assault rifle. "My name is Stefanos Kolettis, patriarch of the Kolettis family. I understand that your ex-wife was involved in taking down our allies about 15 years ago or so, Mister Long."

Yang's eyes turned a bright red as she said, "You bastards killed my mom just as she was about to come back in our lives!" She then began to cry. "All my life, I wanted to reconnect with my biological mother, and me and her had not too long ago began treating each other like mother and daughter for once. Then YOU took that from me."

"Blah blah blah," Stefanos replied. "Your mother divorced your father when you were a baby and then never returned. She was a deadbeat, no ifs, ands, or buts, and she was a lethal one at that. To say she loved you is a lie."

"GOD DAMN IT, _**SHUT UP,**_" Yang angrily replied, her hair now glowing intensely. "RAVEN, MY OWN MOTHER, LOVED ME DEARLY! Do you even realize how much anguish she went through over not being able to see me, my sister Ruby, my Uncle Qrow, or my step-mom, her best friend and closest teammate, due to her role in intelligence, asshole?! She only abandoned us because she KNEW that scumbags like YOU would target us! She sacrificed EVERY connection she had with her family and friends to keep us safe! So don't you EVER say she didn't love me, you fucking son of a whore!"

Stefanos' facial expression changed from cool and calm to angered as he shouted back, "Don't call my own mother a whore, you bitch! She was a saint!" He then aimed his gun at Yang.

Ruby activated her semblance in response, swiping by Stefanos and swiping the gun out of his hands, a gust of wind and a flurry of rose petals indicating her presence. The gangster was taken aback by the move.

His henchmen then opened fire on the rest of the group, prompting them to take cover. Blake yelled, "Eat lead!" She then opened fire with Gambol Shroud, striking one of the henchmen and splattering his blood on Stefanos and a few other gunmen.

Weiss then shouted, "Watch out!" As she spun the revolver on Myrtenaster, she aimed the sword at Stefanos. She selected a cartridge of red dust to burn. She then summoned a glyph on the ceiling and on a spot near Stefanos. "Here I come!"

Qrow and Taiyang looked up as Weiss jumped up on the first glyph and then down onto the second glyph, firing her rest dust cartridge as she jumped down, striking Stefanos. As the heiress landed on her feet, Stefanos screamed in intense pain as he began to burn.

His henchmen froze in their tracks in horror, watching as their boss slowly burned to death. They couldn't do anything lest the gang kill them. Taiyang said as he walked up, "You deserved it, you heartless monster."

Weiss said, "What do we do with the henchmen?"

Qrow coldly replied, "Kill them all."

Ruby began to feel uneasy at Qrow's bloodlust as she cocked Crescent Rose. "Are you sure?"

"Do it," Yang replied, her eyes still red.

The henchmen then dropped their weapons and began to run. Yang soon gave chase, firing her gauntlets wildly at the fleeing men. Weiss said, "Wait, Yang!" She then began to give chase as well.

Blake and Ruby also gave chase, worried about Yang. Taiyang and Qrow looked at each other, shrugged, and joined in as well.

By the time they all got to the other end of the warehouse, Yang had killed all of the henchmen, their bodies, brains, guts, and blood all spilled on a path of destruction. Yang was still angry, breathing heavily and looking down on the mangled remains of a henchman who had tried to open a door to the outside.

Ruby said to her sister, "Yang? Are... Are you alright?"

The blonde's eyes instantly changed back to their regular shade as she quickly turned around and embraced Ruby, tears beginning to fall from her eyes again. "No..."

Taiyang walked over and hugged both of his daughters, he himself beginning to cry as well.

As the rest of the gang looked on, Weiss suddenly felt a tap on the shoulder and turned around. THat's when she noticed Pyrrha's ghost standing before her. She said, "So, Weiss, you guys finally ended this evil empire..."

Weiss nodded as she walked away from the group to talk to Pyrrha. When they were far enough away to not be heard by the rest of the group, she said, "I can't believe they actually went after Raven."

"I'm honestly not surprised," the redheaded Mistralian replied. "She had her hands in a lot of deep shit." She then sighed. "Today is not a good day for me."

Weiss, confused, asked, "Huh? Why?"

"I'm not telling you."

"Tell me. I mean, you're dead, so nobody else will hear this. Just you and me, and anyone else if you want me to, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha then unexpectedly got angry, saying, "How about NO, asshole, alright?!"

"Woah, woah, Pyrrha, calm down." Weiss was now really confused. "There's no need to be that bitchy or upset."

"Don't call me bitchy, you-" Pyrrha then paused and gathered her thoughts. "Ugh... Fine, I'll tell you, Schnee."

* * *

**_January 10, 2017_**

"Jaune," Pyrrha worryingly said to her then-boyfriend of 1 and a quarter years, Jaune Arc, as they sat in Team JNPR's dorm room, alone, on Jaune's bed. "I went to the Academy Nurse and got the results back."

Jaune, visibly distressed, replied, "Well, what is it?"

"I'm 6 weeks pregnant, Jaune." Pyrrha then wiped her eyes. "I... I don't know what to do... I always assumed all the signs were just period irregularities and dietary issues... I always denied in my head that I could be pregnant..."

"Oh no," Jaune replied, shocked. "I'm... Neither of us are ready for this..."

"My parents CANNOT know," Pyrrha said, shaking Jaune by his arms. "They will pull me out of school if they find out I'm pregnant."

Jaune paused for a few seconds. "Then that means... Oh no..."

Pyrrha began to cry, knowing what Jaune was implying. "I don't want to go down that route, but it's the only way... I want to be a mother, but not now..."

Jaune then hugged his sobbing girlfriend, saying, "Don't worry, Pyrrha. I'll respect any choice you make. I love you, and trust me, we'll be parents some day in the future." They then split, still holding hands. "We'll make up for this, and when we do, we'll have a great family."

Pyrrha replied back, "I hope so, Jaune. I hope so."

* * *

_**January 17, 2017**_

Nobody else knew about Pyrrha's pregnancy, not even Ren and Nora. And after today, there would be no more pregnancy.

Pyrrha made up an excuse for going down to the Academy Nurse in the Health Services Building by saying she had stomach cramps after classes ended. When she arrived at the nurse's office, she walked up to a nurse and said, "Hello, my name is Pyrrha Nikos. I'm here for an appointment with Parenthood Planning Services I scheduled 3 days ago."

No other students thought much of Pyrrha or anybody scheduling appointments with the school branch of PPS. It was very rare for the branch to do abortions, as they mostly offered contraceptives and sexual health (gynaecology/urology/andrology) services. Pyrrha and Jaune themselves had visited the PPS branch several times in the past.

The nurse at the front desk nodded and said, "Sign in on the sheet and take your card out of the box for second-year students, Miss Nikos."

"Thank you," she replied. The nurse then led her to the PPS room in the Health Services Building. As she walked down, Pyrrha rubbed her stomach and quietly said to it, "I'm so sorry..." She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, determined to get her abortion done and over with, but also saddened.

* * *

In the present, Weiss looked at Pyrrha, a look of shock and surprise on her face. "You got an abortion at Beacon?!"

Pyrrha panicked. "Shut it, Weiss! Don't say it too loud!" She then sighed. "Yes, I had to terminate a pregnancy in Beacon. God, I wish I was able to uphold my end of the whole 'we'll get married and have kids when we're older' promise me and Jaune made."

Weiss then looked down, saddened by Pyrrha's story. "I'm sorry I've been treating you like shit, Pyrrha. I had no idea. It must suck to have parents that strict. I mean, my dad could get up there, but he wouldn't threaten to throw me out if he found out I was pregnant or I had an abortion. He's surprisingly pro-choice."

"It's fine," Pyrrha quickly replied. "Don't you dare treat me any different just because I made that choice. Got it?"

"Of course," the heiress replied as she and Pyrrha fistbumped. "Only a bigot would. Your secret is safe with me, Pyrrha."

"By the way, so your dad, I assume, is all over the political spectrum or whatever?"

"You can say that again." The 2 of them then laughed. "Well, I gotta run. I'll see you later."


	32. Season 2: Part 12

The massacre at the safehouse had made big news all across Remnant. While the Royal Valeanian Gendarmerie declined to press charges against Team RWBY, Qrow, or Taiyang, they did hold them for questioning to see if they could gather more information on the Mistralian mob.

Hermann had to hold a press conference on the involvement of the SDC in the battle. He stated that the only involvement the Schnee family, the Vigilant Fire Company, the Vale City Fire Department, or the SDC had was that Team RWBY's members were involved. He also stated that he had a private discussion with Weiss the day afterwards. The Commissioner of the VCFD also issued a statement confirming that the department had no direct involvement as well.

A week later, the RVG announced they had arrested 15 individuals connected to the Mistralian mob in Vale using the info collected from the gang and the safehouse, and had issued arrest warrants for 7 more. For all intents and purposes, the Mistralian mob had suffered a massive blow.

* * *

_**February 1, 2021**_

As Yang and George watched T.V. in their apartment at around 5, they commented on the news. Yang pointed at the screen and said, "That guy's fucking sick. I'm glad they shot him."

The story Yang was referring to was being covered by veteran news anchor Lisa Lavender. "Officials say that John Linen-Mauve, an accountant, was implicated by an accomplice who has been arrested in the theft of over 15,000 Lien from a senior citizens centre's banking account which he allegedly spent on child pornography and an underaged prostitute. When police confronted him in his apartment to arrest him, Linen-Mauve charged at them with a large axe, forcing the officers to fire. One officer was taken to the hospital with severe injuries, but is expected to recover."

George shook his head and said, "That's horrible. Who would steal from old people and then spend what you stole on child porn and a teenaged prostitute afterwards?"

Then, Blake called Yang on her phone. Yang answered it, saying, "Yo, what up?"

"Yang," said Blake in a worried voice. "Can you come over to my apartment? Uhhhh, it's hard to explain..."

"I'll be right over," Yang quickly replied.

"Thanks!" Blake then hung up.

Yang got up from the couch and said, "I gotta go to Blake's apartment. Wanna come?"

"Sure," George replied. The 2 then walked out of the apartment and went over to Blake's apartment across the hallway.

Blake greeted them, wearing only underwear, a bra, and Sun's coat. "Hey there... Me and Sun have a big problem. No time to explain. C'mon."

When the 3 of them walked into Blake's bedroom, Sun stood there, having hastily put his pants back in. He said, "We were about to bang when we heard something in here. We don't know what it was."

"Okay," George replied, confused. "What was it?"

"It sounded like a little girl," Blake said. "And it freaked both of us the fuck out."

Suddenly, a high-pitched and girlish voice from the closet said, "I'm hiding. Can you find me?"

Everybody jumped. Yang booked it and ran out of the apartment, screaming profanities. George said, "Holy fuck... Well... One of us is gonna have to open that closet..."

"I'm grabbing my staff," Sun said as he walked out of the room. Hen then came back with Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, both in their nunchuck/shotgun form, and said, "Alright, whoever or whatever's in that closet better come out now!"

As Yang slowly walked back into the apartment, Sun burst down the closet door, aiming his guns at everything in the closet. Blake, worried, said, "Be careful!"

Then, Sun found something and said, "Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me." He then emerged from the closet with a toy doll. "It was this thing." He then pressed a button on the doll that made it speak in the exact same voice they had heard earlier.

Everyone stared at the doll in disbelief. Yang said, "You gotta be fucking kidding me. I almost pissed my pants over a God damn doll?!"

Then, Blake's pager went off in the living room. When they all heard the siren tone afterwards, Yang ran out of the room and down the hallway to the stairs. Blake hurriedly got dressed in her own clothes as George's pager went off as well, causing him to run out of the apartment as well. When Blake got dressed, she kissed Sun goodbye and also ran out of the apartment. The dispatcher told them that it was a 3-car accident with a possible occupied car fire, an Echo response due to the danger of the call.

Outside, George got into his car and sped off to Goodwill's station as Yang and Blake ran across the street diagonally to the Vigilant fire station. As they entered, the ambulance left the station. By now, Car 5, Vigilant's captain, requested that the North Vigilant Fire Company and the Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad be added to the call for more manpower after another dispatcher notified responding units that the doors on another car involved were jammed and needed to be cut.

As Yang and Blake hurriedly put their gear on, Ruby and Weiss also ran into the station. Yang and Blake jumped into the Rescue, getting the last 2 seats, thus forcing Ruby and Weiss to ride the rear step with another firefighter. In the cab, everyone was strapping into their seat's SCBA and putting their masks on without air in preparation to fight the car fire.

Eventually, 3 minutes and 22 seconds after the call came in, Rescue 201 pulled out the door with a crew of 9. By now, Ambulance 201, Car 5, and Car 6 were on scene and reporting that they and several police officers had pulled all 3 occupants out of the burning car with severe burn injuries. They had also confirmed that one of the other cars needed to be cut up with the jaws. Yang breathed a sigh of relief, saying to Blake, "Thank God they got those people out of the car." She then attached her regulator to the end of the low-pressure tube on her mask to clear up her fogged-up mask with some bottle air.

Within 5 and a half minutes of the call, Rescue 201 was on scene. Everyone went on air as they got out of the rescue's cab while Weiss, Ruby, and another firefighter stepped off the rear step and opened several compartments to prepare for extrication.

Yang and Blake pulled a 2 1/2-inch hand line while 2 other firefighters pulled a 1/34-inch hand line. The 5th firefighter on air directed the 2 lines to strike the car from the right side.

As Yang and Blake inched up on the car, sweat pouring from both of them, Yang gave Blake a pat on the back to signal her to open up the line and begin spraying. Blake replied by nodding and opening up the line all the way, knocking the fire down and spraying thick smoke in their direction. The crew on the second line, parallel to Yang and Blake, also began spraying down the fully-involved car.

Meanwhile, Ruby, Weiss, and 4 other firefighters began laying out extrication equipment on a green tarp. It included several airbags, a spreader, a cutter, a combi tool, chocks, and medical equipment. Weiss and another firefighter grabbed some chocks while Ruby walked over the airbag filling box and a spare SCBA bottle.

After about 2 and a half minutes of setting up, Ruby pumped air into the airbags, lifting the car up slightly to stabilize it while Weiss began taping up the glass on the 2 unbroken windows so that when they broke them, glass wouldn't fall on the 2 patients in the car. Meanwhile, the paid firefighter-medics and a volunteer firefighter-medic were in the car administering painkillers intravenously to both patients and putting on neck braces.

Once the 2 unbroken windows were taped up, Ruby used a hammer to break the glass. She and another firefighter then lifted the glass out of the car and onto the street. Another firefighter pressed the spreader into the side of the door and began spreading it apart. With a minute, the door was opened, and firefighters began to move the driver onto a stretcher.

At the same time, Yang and Blake both stopped spraying down the car now that it was almost put out. They laid the hand line down, took their helmets and masks off, and took deep breaths. Yang hi-fived Blake, saying, "Good job."

"You too," Blake replied before wiping the sweat off of her forehead. "We sure knocked down that car fire."

* * *

_**February 3, 2021**_

Today, the weekly meeting and training session would be at 5. After about an hour of going over department business, the firefighters at the station walked downstairs and put their gear on. An old school bus then pulled up to the station. This bus had been converted for use as a transport for fire companies that went down to the city fire training centre for training.

All the interior-qualified firefighters had SCBAs on their backs. Ruby said to Yang as they got on the bus, "It's just like elementary school all over again."

Yang laughed and replied, "Sure is, except our backpacks are now like 75 pounds." The 2 half-sisters then sat down in a seat. In total, 42 firefighters would be going down to the tower, leaving 10 volunteers at the station. For this night, 6 paid firefighter-EMTs and 2 paid firefighter-paramedics were working overtime from 5 to 10 at the station to fill in for all the missing firefighters.

35 minutes later, the bus arrived at the training centre. Everyone got out in front of a 5-storey tower. Captain Kirkridge gathered them all around and said, "Alright. Tonight, we'll be doing live fire training. All interior-qualified personnel will be split up into 2 teams, one to go in, and one to stay out. The exterior personnel will stage with the outside team and get them ready." He then pointed to the 5th floor of the tower. "The fire will be on the 5th floor. The job of the interior team will be to advance 2 hand lines up to the 5th floor and knock it down. Now, how would we access the 5th floor?"

A firefighter raised his hand and said, "With an aerial ladder?"

"True, but let's say we can't use any ladders. How would we access the 5th floor?" As he asked that question, a reserve pumper from the city shops pulled up.

Blake raised her hand and said, "We would climb the stairs and connect our handlines to the standpipe on the 4th floor?"

"Correct, Belladonna. We would climb the stairs and use the standpipes on the 4th floor to charge the lines. Now, Lieutenants Hermann Schnee and Alfred Schnee will lead the 2 interior teams and pick who is on each team." As he said that, the fire instructors on the reserve pumper hit the hydrant and turned the pump on. Several exterior firefighters, including Denis and Theresa, pulled 2 hand lines from the side of the engine. Theresa said to Denis, "I can't wait until I'm allowed to go inside buildings."

"Same here," Denis replied. "That day will come, love. That day will come."

* * *

_**February 4, 2021**_

"I just don't get it," a dispatcher said to Blake in the Fire Alarm Office's break room. "Why would the director do that?"

"I got no clue," Blake said before drinking some coffee. "I'm just a dispatcher. That's way above my paygrade." Then, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket as got a call. "Hello?"

"Blake," Ruby said. "It's Ruby. I'm with Delwyn right now, and his bodyguard just collapsed. We're at the entrance to the Royal Palace right now doing CPR."

"I'll get right to it," Blake said as she walked back into the main room and to the paging board. "What's his problem? Is he breathing?"

"She is not breathing," Ruby frantically replied. "She is unconscious and not alert as well."

"Got it, I'll send over the fire department right away." Blake then hung up. "You guys got a call for the Royal Palace entrance?"

"Just came up now," a dispatcher at the board replied.

"Alright, I got a call from my friend saying that they're doing CPR on the guard and that she is unconscious, not alert, and not breathing."

"Got it. I'll send it out as an Echo response."

As the dispatcher got to work, Blake sat down back at her station, which was one of the boards for the 7 districts in the city. She said to herself, "God, I hope Ruby's doing a good job." Meanwhile, a call came into her district for a fire alarm activation at a supermarket. She immediately got to work, turning the mixer on and transmitting 3 alert tones before saying the box of the call and what operations frequency the responding units would use.

"Car 17 to Fire Alarm."

"Car 17," Blake replied.

"Car 17's en route."

"10-4, just be advised, callers are reporting no smoke or flames visible at this time."

"10-4."

Then, another unit called up. "Assistant District 3's en route to the box."

"10-4, you copy the info from earlier?"

"Affirmative, Fire Alarm. No smoke or flames visible at this time."

"10-4."


	33. Season 2: Part 13

_**February 8, 2021**_

As Truck 201, Ambulance 201, and Rescue 201 backed into the station after a minor structure fire in the middle of the day around 12:52, Weiss took her gear off and put it in her locker. She was the only one out of Team RWBY that went. Yang and Blake were working, and Ruby was attending a seminar for new Hunting Corps officers at Beacon Academy.

After that, she redid her ponytail and grabbed some towels from a utility closet in the rescue/ambulance bay as several firefighters began to wet down the trucks. Her father walked up and said to her, "May I grab one?"

Weiss laughed and replied, "Of course. Have at it. By the way, I won't be available for calls or any SDC business after about 6 onwards today. Me and Jaune are going out to dinner and a movie afterwards."

"Don't worry," Hermann replied. "There's nothing too big going on on the corporation front. I just gotta attend a regular meeting with the Board of Directors over teleconference."

Then, another firefighter said, "Hey Weiss, come over here and help change out the SCBA bottles on the rescue rig!"

"Got it," Weiss replied as he laid her towels down on the rear step of the rescue and walked over to the cab.

Meanwhile, Alfred, Weiss' uncle and the 2nd Lieutenant, was filing paperwork in the Captain's office for 2 new applicants that would be sworn in on the weekly Wednesday meeting on the 10th. He then heard the phone in the office ring. He answered it as he put his pen down, saying, "Hello?"

"Yes, is this Arthur Kirkridge of the Vigilant Fire Company?" The straightforward and somewhat youthful female voice on the other end seemed slightly familiar to him.

"No this is not," Alfred replied. "I can get you Captain Kirkridge since we just got back from a fire."

"No, it's fine." The voice then sighed. "I need to ask a few questions, that's all." The caller then suddenly switched languages to Atlesian. "Ich denke dass ich deine Stimme erkennen. Wie heissen Sie?"

Flabbergasted, Alfred replied, "Wo- Wohe- Woher weisst du ich war Atlesisch? Ich heisse Alfred Schnee. Ich bin der 2. Leutnant der Freiwillige Feuerwehr Vigilant und der Finanzvorstand der Schnee Staub Aktiengesellschaft. Wer sind Sie?"

The voice replied, "Ich heisse Penny Polendina, Alfred." She then switched back to Valeanian. "I apologize for switching up languages. Anyways, I'm looking for Ruby Rose."

"Penny?! My God, I haven't heard from you in years!" Alfred then became less tense, having been at first worried. "Ruby's currently at a Hunting Corps seminar for new officers like herself. I gotta tell her about this when she gets back."

"I miss her soooo much," Penny replied. "I haven't left Atlas since I was repaired and sent back home after the Battle of Beacon. The thing is, I put in transfer papers from the Atlesian Army to the Royal Valeanian Hunting Corps about a month ago, and I was just cleared to move to Vale. I heard Team RWBY all became firefighters or something, is that correct?"

"Yes they did. Weiss got Ruby, Yang, and Blake to join in June 2020. They're volunteers, unlike the military firefighters all of Atlas has."

"That's so cool! How's Team JNPR?"

Alfred then got somber. "Well... Uhh... Pyrrha died in 2019 from a car accident. But... On the bright side, Ren and Nora are married and have a kid, and my niece Weiss and Jaune are going out now."

Penny became sad for a second, saying, "Oh yeah... I read about that..." She then sighed. "I told her I forgave her back in 2015, but to be honest, I don't think she ever fully believed me. If only I hadn't been trapped in Atlas doing almost 6 years of grueling training, combat, and reworking, me and her could have been good friends." She then remembered the rest of what Alfred had said. "Well, at least the rest of Team JNPR is still around. I can't believe Weiss is actually dating Jaune now."

Alfred laughed and said, "Me neither. I heard from my brother, Weiss's father Hermann, that she was very annoyed by him at first because she used to date another boy named Neptune or something from Mistral. They broke up in 2016 I think."

"Oh yeah, I remember Neptune! How's his friend Sun, by the way?"

"Sun? Sun..." Alfred tried to remember him. "Oh yeah! That's Blake's boyfriend! His team is in Vale for a year doing training, but I have a feeling he's gonna stay here once it's over in July."

"Oh my, I really gotta catch up! Well, I'll be down at the firehouse by at least 5. I wanna surprise Ruby. I'm actually at the airport right now."

"Alright, sounds like a plan. Ruby gets out at 3. I'll tell her to come down soon."

* * *

Later at 5, Ruby was talking with the rest of her team, as well as Team JNR plus Ren and Nora's daughter, at the firehouse in the rec room. Weiss had told them that Alfred and Hermann needed to see them at that time. Only Weiss knew that Penny was back.

"I'm kinda afraid," Ruby said. "I have no idea if this meeting is good or bad."

"Stop being so nervous," Yang replied. "We haven't done anything bad. I mean, I did punch out that woman a while back, but she attacked me first, and I was already talked to and cleared by the officers for that."

Weiss resisted the urge to tell them, saying nervously, "I really don't think anyone's in trouble here, girls. I just have a feeling, that's all."

Jaune said to Weiss, "So what movie are we gonna go see later?"

"I was thinking Riders of the Skies. How about you?"

"I agree," Jaune replied. "Anyways, why did your dad and uncle tell us to come down here too?"

Then, the door of the rec room opened, and Penny stepped out. She turned and faced the group before saying, "Salutations." She then laughed and said, "I haven't said that in like half a year."

Ruby's eyes opened wide as she jumped up out of her seat and ran to Penny, saying to herself, "Oh my God!" She then wrapped her arms around the robot girl and squeezed tight as tears began falling out of her eyes. "I never thought you'd come back, Penny. Never..."

Penny returned the hug, saying, "I put in transfer files to the VHC. I won't be going anywhere anytime soon."

Ruby then quietly said to herself, "No way... This has to be a dream..."

The rest of the group looked on in amazement. Weiss said, "I was the only one who knew in the group. I couldn't resist holding the secret in for much longer."

* * *

After a long conversation about what Penny had missed, the gang split up. Ruby, Yang, and Penny agreed to have Penny stay overnight at their place and then help Penny move into her apartment the next day, which coincidentally happened to be in a building just a block away.

George was talking to her, amazed at her being a robot and a top-level hunter-soldiers in the Atlesian Army. "To be honest, I'm amazed to be sitting here with you now. It's just... Wow..."

Penny laughed, replying with, "Nah, I'm not anything special anymore, nor was I ever. They made 79 other robots after me, male and female, so I'm kinda outdated, I guess. Besides, I always thought of myself as a normal girl and soldier who just happened to be built rather than "born" in the sense most mean it as."

Yang said to George, "So, is she blowing your mind, hun?"

"Sure is," the eager young man replied. "It amazes me how far we've, like, come in this field."

"Ahh, it's no big deal." Penny then laughed. "So, all I need to do is go to Beacon tomorrow, and I'll find out what units I'll be assigned to."

"I hope it's my unit," Ruby replied. I'll go with you to request you be put in my platoon of huntsmen and huntresses. Jaune will make sure you get put in his company."

"You're both officers now?" Penny was startled.

"Yes. I'm a recently-promoted Lieutenant, and Jaune is a Captain. We both took the necessary classes at Beacon to become commissioned officers, though I was an NCO until towards the end of last year. I was moved up to the CO ranks because Jaune was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain. As for the rest of the gang as of January this year, Yang is currently my platoon sergeant, ranking at E-7 Sergeant First Class, Weiss is an E-6 Staff Sergeant, and Blake is an E-5 Sergeant."

"Oh my," Penny said, amazed at Team RWBY's progress. "I was a Feldwebel, or Field Usher, in the Atlesian Army when I transferred, so I will most likely become a Staff Sergeant."

Then, a knock on the door was heard, and a voice said, "Ruby, I'm here."

Ruby excitedly jumped up and replied, "I got it!" Penny could tell she seemed very happy all of a sudden for whoever had come to the door.

When Ruby opened the door, Delwyn was there. She gave him a kiss and led him in. He said, "You told me you had an important visitor. Who is it?"

Penny instantly recognized Delwyn's face. She stood up from her chair and rendered a military salute to the King of Vale. Delwyn, perplexed, replied, "Well... At ease, I guess?"

Penny lowered her right arm and stood at ease. She said, "Permission to speak, your majesty?

Delwyn replied, "Well, this is awkward... Yes, I grant you permission to speak. You may also relax and drop the formalities."

Penny then bowed and said, "Yes, your majesty."

Ruby said to her boyfriend, "Delwyn, this is Penny Polendina. To explain her formalities, let's just say she's... Well... A robot. She is most likely pre-programmed to render heads of state such salutes and to speak to them in a very formal tone of voice."

"She's right," Penny said, now relaxed. "I apologize for acting like that if it offended you, your maj- I mean, Delwyn."

"I'm not offended," Delwyn said before laughing. "I'm impressed. Hey, weren't you that girl at the Vytal Festival back in 2015 that got, you know, destroyed?"

"Yes I was. Don't worry, I'm not too traumatized or anything by that. So, how do you know my friend Ruby?"

"Funny you should ask that, Penny." Delwyn and Ruby then smiled at each other and kissed.

After they split, they both said together, "We're dating."

Penny got an excited look on her face. "No way! For real? Ruby's dating the King of Vale?! This is amazing!"

"Ehhh, it ain't nothing special," Ruby replied. "Strip away all the titles and government on his end, and we're just a normal young couple."

Delwyn said, "You got that right." He then turned to Penny. "So, I have heard a lot about you from Ruby about how all-around nice you are, as well as your kindness. I also found your military records from Atlas, and I must say, if you do intend on staying here permanently, our Hunting Corps would greatly benefit from your presence and expertise."

"Why thank you," Penny replied. "I am honored to have such kind words come from you. Also, I did indeed put in transfer papers. Once I re-register tomorrow, I'll be a Valeanian citizen and a RVHC member."

Then, the ringing of Ruby and Yang's pagers was heard, followed by the siren tones for Vigilant, and then the ringing of George's pager as well the siren tones for Goodwill. Ruby said to Penny, "Me, Yang, and George gotta go to a fire call. We'll be back." The 3 of them then bolted out of the apartment, but not before Ruby kissed Delwyn goodbye.

Penny said to Delwyn, "We never had any volunteer emergency services like that in Atlas, even in the smallest towns. All firefighting was done by the military, and firefighters never did anything with the military ambulances, medics, or accident rescues."

"We're unique in that way," Delwyn replied. "And I wouldn't want it to be much different."

"I wonder, can I do that? I mean, I have Atlesian military certification for firefighting, accident rescue, and field medicine."

"All you have to do is go to the nearest volunteer fire company, in this case the Vigilant Fire Company, get an application, fill it out, turn it in, and in about 3 weeks, you will most likely be sworn in as a firefighter. Since you have Atlesian certifications, they will all probably carry over, if I recall correctly from what Ruby told me about training, so you won't have to do a bunch of training when you start."

"Alright, it sounds like a deal." Penny then got up. "Well, I'm off to Ruby's firehouse to apply."

* * *

An hour and 10 minutes later, after Truck 201 and Rescue 201 returned from the call, which was a Bravo-response traffic accident with leaking fluids and minor entrapment, Ruby took her gear off, put it in her locker, and found Penny conversing with the captain of the company as she held her application in her hands.

Penny saw her and waved her over. She said, "Come here."

Ruby walked over and said, "Penny, what's going on?"

"I'm gonna try applying to your fire company," she eagerly replied.

Captain Kirkridge said, "She seems like a good candidate for membership. What do you say, Rose?"

Ruby then pulled Penny aside and said to her captain, "Excuse me for one moment." She then turned to Penny, dead serious. "Are you honest to God 100% sure you want to do this?"

"Well, I want to spend time with you and the rest of Team RWBY. Plus, I want to use the military skills I learned in Atlas about emergency work to help others. All of my Atlesian Army certifications will carry over here, and I actually possess enough certifications to be an interior-qualified Firefighter-Paramedic here."

Ruby sighed. "Penny, this is very serious work. You are going to see some of the worst that this world and people have to offer. You will see shit that will leave you awake at night. You will be given the opportunity to help others, but you will also be given the opportunity to have all of your hard work at a call lead to failure. To top it off, you will do all of that for absolutely _**NO**_ monetary compensation except for a meager pension you get at the age of 60, **if** you make it to 60."

"Don't be so dramatic," Penny replied. "I will be fine." She then became serious as well. "Look, Ruby, I understand this is dangerous, and I understand I won't get paid a penny, no pun intended, to do this. But I **know** what it's like to stay awake at night because your memories haunt your dreams and turn them into nightmares." She then turned Ruby around and began to whisper in her ear. "I did some seedy shit in Atlas. I shot people because they were alleged to have been conspiring against Atlas' government, even without a conviction or even a criminal background. Tell _**NOBODY**_ about what I've done for my fatherland, because if you do, we _**BOTH**_ could be in deep, deep shit, and not just from the legal system in Vale and Atlas." She then stopped whispering and turned Ruby back around.

Ruby replied, "No way..."

"Also, don't you think I have nightmares about what happened with me and Pyrrha, as well as the thought of losing my friends?" She then paused. "Exactly." She then patted Ruby on the back. "I'm ready to do this. I want to use my skills to help people, not hunt them down."

The young redhead nodded and replied, "I see. Penny, you'll make a great addition to the company." She then turned to Captain Kirkridge. "I fully recommend this girl for membership, Captain."

"And by the way," Penny said in a joking manner. "Even though I don't need to breathe because of the whole robot thing, I'll still wear an air pack." The 3 of them then laughed. "I mean, I do breathe, but only to keep my systems cooled down, so I may actually need to wear one, lest I overheat and just shut down. I do have strong heat resistance, though, and I am waterproof."

"Good," the captain replied. "We wouldn't want ya shortin' out on us at a fire. I'll see ya tomorrow at the company meeting and training session. Be there by 5 P.M."


	34. Season 2: Part 14

_**February 13, 2021**_

The cry of a firehouse siren awoke Penny as she slept in her new apartment at 2:10 in the morning. She said to herself as she rolled out of bed to watch, "Ugh... Let's see what it is..." She then opened the window of her apartment and watched as she saw a few people pop out of the apartment buildings nearby to get to the station. One volunteer even opened the window to their apartment and ran down the fire escape to the street.

She used a radio scanning app on her phone to listen to a feed that broadcasted the dispatch and fireground channels of city fire District 2. As she saw Ambulance 201 pull out, a firefighter on board radioed, "Fire Alarm, Ambulance 201's en route with a crew of 6, all interior."

"10-4," said Blake's voice. "Fire Alarm to Car 5."

Penny thought to herself, _"Wow! Blake must be working overtime. That's gotta suck if she's working this late."_

"Car 5," replied Arthur Kirkridge.

"We are getting multiple calls reporting flames pouring out of the 3rd floor, everyone is attempting to evacuate."

"10-4. Fire Alarm, I'm pulling up right now on a 5-storey tenement with fire on the street side on the 3rd floor out of 2 windows. We have several people streaming out of the building and at least 2 people waving what appears to be clothes trapped on the 4th floor. We also have the building's fire alarms going off and several police officers on scene. Make this a Code 99."

As Penny pondered what this code meant, she saw red and yellow lights flicker from the station as Truck 201's driver started up its lights. Soon after, Truck 201 pulled out of the station. The truck's mechanical siren blared loudly throughout the street, a sound unfamiliar to Penny, who was used to pneumatic hi-lo horns or electronic hi-lo sirens on blue-lighted Atlesian emergency vehicles. "Fire Alarm, Truck 201's responding with 10, 8 interior."

"I wonder if any of Team RWBY or Ren are on that truck," Penny said to herself. "I can only imagine how tired they must be right now, since it's 2:14 right now."

* * *

Later that day, Ruby and Delwyn met at the Royal Palace with Delwyn's mother, Callwen the Queen Mother. She was 53 years old and held a good opinion of Ruby. Before she was married to Delwyn III, she was the heiress to a powerful bank and had met the former king when they both attended a private high school.

"So I called my brother," she said as she continued a funny story. "He's flipping out because they couldn't stop the transaction from happening, and he tells me that if the transaction goes through, the company will lose over 400 million lien (A/N: over 280 million US dollars). He explains to me the reason why one of our traders sold 1,000,000 shares for 1 lien (A/N: 70 US cents) rather than 1 share for 10,000 lien (A/N: 7,000 US dollars) was because she spilled coffee or something on the keyboard and in her confusion she must have typed in the numbers in the wrong places."

"Holy shit," Ruby said before she caught herself. "I mean, uh... I apologise for swearing."

"It's fine, dear. Trust me, my brother swore like a God damn sailor over this. Let's just say the phone lines turned blue that day from all the f-bombs that were yelled over it by the many executives of the bank." She then laughed. "Lesson learned, don't put a drink near your keyboard if you're doing something really important. Anyways, I believe this is the first time we've truly got to know each other, Ruby. If you're nervous or anything, don't be. Sure, I may be the Queen Mother, but in this room, we're both just people talking, that's all."

"You're right," Ruby replied. "It's just... It's so cool meeting with rather powerful people on a regular basis."

"If you think it's cool meeting them," Delwyn said. "It's even better, but also a lot more challenging, being them."

"You're right about that," Callwen replied. "You 2 remind me a lot of me and my husband when we first started dating. Sure, I had met royals before, and I was in an influential family, but even so, it was a big eye-opener for me to see what the crown prince of a nation had to deal with."

Then, Ruby sat up and said, "Excuse me for a minute, I have to use the restroom." She then left and went into a nearby bathroom.

Callwen then turned to her son. "She's a really nice girl, Delwyn."

"She sure is," he replied. "She sure is."

Then, Callwen dropped a big question. "So, are you going to ask for her hand eventually?"

Delwyn immediately paused. He intensely blushed and his heart began to race at the thought of him and Ruby being married one day in the Royal Palace. "Uhh... Well... I... How long do you think I should wait?"

"Well, you 2 have been a 'thing' since December, right? I'd wait until late next year to make that decision."

Delwyn nodded. He then thought to himself, _"But what about Ruby's sexuality?"_ "I'm a bit worried, though..." He had not told his mother nor anyone else at the Royal Palace that Ruby was bisexual, and he had also not told anyone of how exactly they met. (A/N for those too lazy to go back to Season 1: Ruby first met Delwyn IV when she was going on a pub crawl with Yang shortly after coming out in Vale's "LGBT district," the Mayer-Mateo neighbourhood.)

"About what?"

"Well..." _"Fuck, how do I break this to my mom?" _Delwyn began to get worried. "I'm worried because Ruby is..."

"A commoner? That's nothing to be worried about in this day and age, dear."

"No, not that, mom. It's that-"

"I'm back," Ruby then suddenly returned, causing Delwyn to stop the conversation. "Hmm, I sense something tense here. What's going on?"

"Uh... Ruby, come here, I need to whisper something to you." Callwen got the hint and looked away. Ruby leaned into Delwyn's mouth as he said, "My mom doesn't know you're bi. I think we need to tell her."

Ruby nodded and turned to Callwen, saying, "Your majesty, I need to tell you something about me that me and Delwyn think is very important."

"Go ahead," Callwen said. She understood this was serious, but had no idea what Ruby was talking about.

"You see, I am not straight." Ruby then sighed. "I am bisexual, and I always will be. Even though I am attracted to women alongside men, I love Delwyn with all of my heart, and I will never abandon him. I do not care what others may think of me because of this important part of me and my life. I cannot change who I am."

Callwen paused. She then said, "Well why didn't you tell me that before? I would care more about what I watch on TV then that."

Ruby then breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God."

Delwyn then said, "But what about the populace? What if me and Ruby do actually get married one day? How will they react to a Queen that is LGBT? Will Parliament approve?"

"Stop worrying, dear." Callwen's tone of voice was calming. "They will. If God forbid they do not because of that, I would not blame you if you chose to abdicate the throne and give it to your younger sister. Hell, I'd do it myself. If the nation really cares that much, then, to be honest, Vale doesn't deserve a King and Queen like you 2 then."

As with Delwyn, Ruby blushed at the thought of marrying Delwyn. She said, "Well, that's a long ways away anyways, so we don't have to worry about that now, right? Right."

"Yeah," Delwyn replied. "It sure is, and we got a lot of time to make that decision."

* * *

_**February 15, 2021**_

"Hey Theresa," said Denis. "Can you come with me to the rec room for a sec?"

Theresa, who had been cleaning the area around her gear locker, said, "Got it. I'll be right over."

When she entered the rec room, Denis said, "C'mon, sit over here next to me." She found a seat next to Denis facing the TV.

She asked, "What's up?"

"My parents argued last night real bad," he said in a somber tone. "My dad left in a huff and took his car to his parents' house." He then sighed. "This is the first time it's happened."

Theresa felt a lot of sympathy for her boyfriend. "That's happened to me before. In fact, many things have happened to me due to my family."

"Say," Denis replied curiously. "You never told me about that. What happened?"

"Well... You are the first person outside of my family to know this, so..."

* * *

_**June 10, 2009**_

"Alrighty," a gendarme from the Royal Valeanian Gendarmerie's Childcare Enforcement Division said as he handed a contract to a man and a woman. "Just sign here, stating that you will assume interim custody of Theresa Mikusch until a later date when permanent custody will be established."

"Thank you," said the man. "Our niece will be well taken care of." He then signed the contract.

Theresa, then just 4 years old, said to her uncle and aunt, "What's gonna happen to mama?"

Her aunt replied to her as her faced became sad and her tone shifted, "Theresa, your mama... Your mama can't live with you anymore..."

"What? Why?" The young child became teary-eyed as this dawned on her young mind. "I love mama, though."

"I know, sweetie, but... Something came up..."

* * *

"My mom was a drug addict... Bad..." Theresa said in the present year of 2021. "My father was stabbed to death outside of a bar when I was 7 months old, which caused her downward spiral. They never caught the guy who killed him."

"Oh my God... Compared to you, my troubles seem like nothing..."

"Don't say that, Denny." She then hugged him. "Don't ever say that. I'm not going to invalidate your parents' problems, okay? If you want me to, I'll stop my story here and let you talk."

"No," Denis replied. "Keep going."

"Well, my uncle was my dad's brother. My mom was an only child. My aunt and my uncle were about to divorce in 2015 when I was 10. Then, my aunt shot herself before the proceedings could begin."

* * *

_**October 10, 2015**_

A 10-year-old Theresa was sitting at the kitchen table of her aunt and uncle's apartment alongside her 13-year-old cousin Mark. Though they were cousins in theory, they were brother and sister in practice. Theresa was drawing on a piece of paper with Mark, who was showing her how to draw cartoon characters from various shows that she liked. "You're doing great," Mark said to her.

"Awww, thank you." Theresa brushed off some eraser shavings and looked at a drawing of a character from a Vacuonimation show she and Mark both watched. (A/N: "Vacuonimation," defined as cartoons and animations from the Kingdom of Vacuo, hold a similar place in Remnant pop culture as anime in real life.)

Suddenly, a loud bang emanated throughout the apartment. Mark said to himself quietly, "What the fuck..."

Theresa innocently asked, "What was that?"

Mark then stood up and ran upstairs, asking, "Mom, what was that?"

Theresa stayed downstairs, wondering what happened. She thought to herself, _"That was very loud."_

Then, the sound of a bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the apartment before Mark yelled, "Oh my God, Mom! No!"

* * *

In the present, Theresa began crying. "Why did she do it... Why..."

Denis panicked as he thought to himself, _"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, I made her cry! What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?" _"Uhhh... I'm sorry I brought it up, Tracy..."

"No, no, don't say that." Theresa was adamant in her demand. "Don't be sorry, Denis." She then gave him a kiss. After splitting, she said, "I'm glad I got that out of me. I pray your parents resolve their problems."

"Thank you," Denis said as he wiped tears off of his girlfriend's face. "Now, need me to get some towels or something?"

"No, I'm good. I've gotten used to just wiping shit off my face with my sleeve." She then laughed.

Then, the pagers in the station went off, followed by the siren tones and the alerting bells in the station. As Denis and Theresa rushed into the apparatus bay, the siren started up as more people at the station ran to get their gear on.

After putting her gear on, Theresa ran to get on the ambulance, popping open the back door and climbing aboard just as it was pulling out of the station. To her surprise, there were no open seats in the back. A firefighter pointed to the stretcher and said, "You can sit in there if you wanna."

She laughed and said, "Eh, why not?" She then wiped her eyes again to get the last tears out.

Meanwhile, Denis got aboard Truck 201 as he and several other volunteers waited for more personnel to show up. As thoughts of the previous conversation raced in his mind, several volunteers raced into the station. He asked the driver, "What's the info on the call?"

"Reported kitchen fire on the 17th floor of an apartment building," the driver replied. "It's in that new North Vigilant company's first due. I'm telling ya, kid, they're kind of a mess. All their gear is different types, and both of their engines are over 20 years old."

"Well, they're new," Denis replied. "They need time to get everything straightened out."

"Yeah, true. About 10 of our guys left to join them, I know that. These new fire companies are draining the older ones a bit, but they're also pulling in new guys as well. Besides, with recruitment at an all-time high for us, we recouped our losses in no time."

Eventually, 3 and a half minutes after the tones dropped, all 10 seats were filled on the truck. Ren, who had grabbed the officer's seat next to the driver, radioed, "Fire Alarm, Truck 201's en route with a crew of 10, 9 interior."

"10-4."


	35. Season 2: Part 15

_**February 24, 2021**_

At the company meeting, Captain Kirkridge said, "Tonight, we will be swearing in a new member. Penny Polendina, you may stand."

Penny stood up from her seat and walked over to Ruby, who held the rules and regulations book for the VFC. She placed her right hand on the book and her left hand in the air. Ruby said, "Repeat after me. I, state your full name."

I, Penny Schumacher Polendina."

"Do hereby declare,"

"Do hereby declare,"

"That I will support the Kingdom of Vale,"

"That I will support the Kingdom of Vale,"

"And respect and uphold its laws."

"And respect and uphold its laws."

"Furthermore, I will protect the City of Vale,"

"Furthermore, I will protect the City of Vale,"

"From the threat of fire,"

"From the threat of fire,"

"As a volunteer firefighter of the Vigilant Fire Company."

"As a volunteer firefighter of the Vigilant Fire Company."

"Furthermore, I will provide,"

"Furthermore, I will provide,"

"Rescue and emergency medical services,"

"Rescue and emergency medical services,"

"To the City of Vale."

"To the City of Vale."

"I will not reveal,"

"I will not reveal,"

"Sensitive information,"

"Sensitive information,"

"Unless authorised to."

"Unless authorised to."

"I recognise that my badge,"

"I recognise that my badge,"

"Is a symbol of trust,"

"Is a symbol of trust,"

"And if I break that trust,"

"And if I break that trust,"

"I will face the consequences."

"I will face the consequences."

"As a volunteer firefighter,"

"As a volunteer firefighter,"

"I will accept no compensation,"

"I will accept no compensation,"

"In the form of money."

"In the form of money."

"Finally,"

"Finally,"

"I will do my duty to the best of my ability."

"I will do my duty to the best of my ability."

"Welcome to the fire department," Ruby said as she shook Penny's hand. The 2 then hugged as she whispered, "You did good." The rest of the room clapped for Penny.

Penny laughed and whispered back, "Thanks."

* * *

After the meeting section of the night was over, the company went downstairs to put its gear on and practice hitting hydrants out on the street. Team RWBY led Penny to her gear locker, which contained a brand new long coat, a leather fire helmet, a mask, a pair of gloves, and a pair of high boots. Her helmet had a giant letter P on it for probationary firefighter. Weiss said to her, "You will get the probie shield taken off after exactly one year of service. Ruby, Blake, and Yang still have their shields."

Penny said, "This gear looks a lot different than it did in Atlas. Looks lighter too." She then took the boots out and slipped her shoes off before sliding her feet into them. "You pull up the folded section, right?"

Blake said, "Yep."

Penny pulled her boots all the way up and said, "These are like wading boots." She then let her hair down and put her coat on, buckling and zipping it all the way up before stuffing her hair in the back of her coat. "I assume this strap in the middle is designed to keep this coat from blowing upwards."

"It is," Weiss said as she adjusted and tightened the hip strap. "Don't keep it too tight, though, or you'll lose mobility."

Penny then grabbed her mask and put it on. "Let me guess, you guys don't have hoods?"

"Nope," Weiss said. "Some companies do, but we don't."

Then, Penny put her helmet and gloves on. "How do I look?" She gave a thumbs up as Ruby took a picture of her.

"You look awesome," Ruby said. "Hey Weiss, doesn't the captain have to get Penny checked for SCBA usage?"

"Oh yeah," Weiss replied. She then turned around and called out, "Captain!"

"Yes, Weiss?" Captain Kirkridge emerged from his office carrying paperwork.

"Penny's ready to try on the air packs!"

"Got it," he replied. "I'll get my pack from my car and bring it out during hydrant training."

Eventually, as Team RWBY and the rest of the company hit the various hydrants outside the fire station with the truck and the rescue, Captain Kirkridge got Penny suited up. He grabbed the pack from his car and said, "These packs are 2200 PSI and are rated to last for 30 minutes. Now, obviously, as a robot, you don't actually need this to breathe, so you may probably be able to extend this pack to twice that. You really only need it to cool your internal computers down, correct?"

"Affirmative," Penny replied as she grabbed the pack and swung it around her back. "Oh my God, this thing is a dinosaur. It weighs twice as much as the packs in Atlas, and those went for an hour and were charged at 4500 PSI."

The captain laughed and said, "We like to stick to some traditions. But hey, we don't go overboard with tradition."

Eventually, Penny pulled tight the straps on her pack, and she said, "So the regulators on these are not attached to the mask?"

"Nope," the captain replied. "You attach them to the end of the tube attached to the mask."

Penny then turned on her pack and attached the regulator to the low-pressure tube attached to her mask, charging it with air. As Penny took her first breath of air from the pack, her fogged-up masked cleared out. "So, am I interior as of now or later?"

"Well, since you completed all training necessary and then some, you will be cleared to go interior starting today. Of course, you probably won't be taking the lead inside buildings until you get some more time in." The captain then drank some hot coffee he had brought with him outside in the cold. "So, how do you feel?"

"I feel pretty good," Penny replied. "I'm ready to fight some fire."

* * *

_**February 25, 2021**_

Penny had just come home from conversion training at Beacon Academy when she heard her pager go off at 4:42. It had gone off so much the night before for EMS calls that Penny turned it off. She had turned it back on before going to the 7-hour training session. "Huh," the girl said. "I wonder what the call is for." Then, as she heard the station siren go off in the distance, more tones went out over the pager to call other companies. She immediately bolted from her apartment as she realized what the dispatching of 4 fire companies meant.

As she raced to and then down the stairs, she felt her hard drives race as she realized that this was her first box alarm, the terminology for a reported structure fire or a fire alarm activation.

Eventually, she made it to the station after about 2 and a half minutes. She hurriedly kicked her shoes off and slipped her boots on before grabbing her helmet and putting it on. Then, she grabbed her coat and held onto both as she ran to Truck 201 to get a seat. She ended up getting the 8th seat.

Ruby, who had gotten the 7th seat, said to Penny, "I see you're excited, Penny."

Penny excitedly replied, "Ruby! You made it!" She then put her coat on and began to zip it up as 2 more firefighters, one of whom was Blake, jumped on and grabbed the last seats.

The firefighter in the front seat, Lieutenant Alfred Schnee, turned around and asked, "Penny, you're interior-trained, right?"

"Yeah, I got trained by Atlas." Penny then sat down in her seat as the truck began pulling out the station, 3 and a half minutes after the call went out.

"Got it. Put a pack on and we'll put you to work." Alfred then turned around and radioed, "Fire Alarm, Truck 201's en route with a crew of 10, 9 interior." The driver was non-interior, being a much older firefighter in his mid 60s.

Penny reached behind her and began pulling tight the shoulder straps on the SCBA. Once this was done, she reached for the waist strap and clipped that in as well. "Everything's all correct on the pack, right?"

Blake nodded as she reached forward and reached her right hand to the bottom of her pack to turn it on. "Just be sure to turn it on. Mask up when you get out of the truck, Penny."

Eventually, after 2 and a half minutes of driving, Truck 201 arrived at the scene of a 2nd floor apartment fire. By now, fire was blowing out of a window and heavy smoke billowed out of another. Penny and a second firefighter stepped out first, running to the back to grab a supply line. As Penny jumped out of the truck, she tightened her waist strap on her SCBA, her mask's tube already attached to the regulator and her pack ready for use later.

When she got to the back of the truck, the second firefighter opened the supply line compartment door and pulled the 5-inch hose out, with Penny feeding the rest to him as he ran to the hydrant. Penny thought to herself, _"This is really happening! My first call is an actual fire!"_

Eventually, Penny grabbed the hydrant bag from another compartment and ran to the hydrant. There, the second firefighter said to her, "You know how to hit one of these?"

"I remember most of it from last night," Penny replied as she got the tools out. As she did, another firefighter began raising the aerial ladder of Truck 201 up to the 3rd floor.

The second firefighter opened the large steamer cap on the front of the hydrant while Penny opened up the smaller right nozzle cap. She then grabbed a hydrant gate and attached it to the nozzle connection. This would serve as a backup in case the steamer connection failed. Meanwhile, the second firefighter hooked up the supply line to the steamer connection with another gate. He said to Penny, "Don't charge the hydrant until we get the order to over the radio."

"Got it," Penny said as she attached a wrench to the top of the hydrant.

Sure enough, Truck 201's driver, now operating the pumps, radioed over the fireground channel, "Truck 201 Pump to Hydrant 1, charge the line!"

"10-4," Penny radioed back before cranking the wrench all the way until it stopped, filling the supply line with water. Once the line was charged, she ran back to the captain.

The captain saw her and told her, "Get your mask on and go in the building with the paid lieutenant off of the ambulance."

"Yes, sir," Penny replied. She then took off her helmet before pulling her hair back and putting her mask on. Once she was on air, she put her helmet and gloves on as the captain pointed to the paid lieutenant.

He said, "So, your name is Penny, right?" He then donned his own mask.

"It sure is," Penny replied back. "Your gear looks much more like the gear I used in Atlas."

"Interesting. Anyways, we'll be entering on the 3rd floor with the ladder." He then pointed to Truck 201's aerial ladder.

Penny nodded and followed him as they walked to the truck and climbed up to the base of the aerial. As she looked up at the smoke and flames, she thought to herself, _"Here I go."_

Then, they climbed up the ladder. As Penny watched below her, she began to smell the smoke intensely. The paid firefighter then said, "When we get up there, we'll meet up with some Vigilant firefighters on a hand line."

Eventually, they reached the window. Penny climbed in first, stepping through the window and into the third floor, followed by the paid firefighter. She said, "Alright, where's the hand line?"

"Follow me," said the paid firefighter. The 2 then began walking through the smoke, which got thicker as they went deeper into the building. Penny looked in awe at the environment surrounding her.

When they reached the line, 3 Vigilant firefighters approached them. The leader of the group said, "It's all charged and ready to go for you guys. We'll be leaving to get our air bottles replaced and refilled."

"Got it," replied the paid firefighter. He then motioned with his right hand for Penny to follow him as they both got down on their knees to crawl below the smoke, which had become thick. It was almost impossible to see down the hallway they were going down.

Eventually, they reached the end of the hand line, and Penny decided to be at the front, with the paid firefighter backing her up. At the very end of the hallway was some of the fire.

"You know what you're doing, right?"

"Yes, I do!" Penny then slowly opened up the bale of the nozzle as they both moved down the hallway further. As the water hit the flames, steam billowed throughout the hallway as they both heard the sizzling walls and floor. Penny thought to herself, _"By God, it feels amazing to do this for real! I haven't done a real fire since that one Reichsmarine frigate burned up on a deployment!"_

* * *

After everyone returned to the station, Penny was taking her gear off and putting it back when suddenly, Ruby came up from behind and hugged her, saying, "Good job at the fire, Penny!"

Penny smiled, laughed, and replied, "Awww, thanks, Ruby." After they split, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Ren came up too.

Ren asked, "So, how do you like it?"

"I love it," Penny replied excitedly. "I haven't fought an actual fire in 3 years. I can't wait to do more stuff with you all."

Weiss replied, "You won't wait long. We do over 1,000 fire-rescue calls and 6,000 EMS calls per year. That includes at least 50 to 60 working fires. You'll see a lot here, Penny. As someone who's been here since they were 12, trust me on that."

"Since 12? No way! They let people do it that young?"

"You have to be 14 to receive Basic Firefighter-CFR training," Blake said. "You then have to be 16 to actually go inside buildings. Before then, you're exterior-only."

"I wonder if I break that rule," Penny replied. "It's been only almost 7 years since I was built. Then again, I was built with a physical age of 15+ starting out, so it doesn't matter, I guess." She then laughed. _"I'm gonna really enjoy it here in Vale," _she then thought to herself. _"All of my old friends are here with me again, and I'm still doing what I enjoy: hunting Grimm. And now, I'm even starting to enjoy fighting fires too."_


	36. Season 2: Part 16

_**March 1, 2021**_

Penny was doing her first 12-hour shift at the firehouse. With her was Weiss, Ren, and 4 other volunteer firefighters plus the 2 paid firefighters assigned to the ambulance. The time was 8:38 P.M.

Upstairs in the kitchen, Penny and Weiss talked about life. "So I've been showing Jaune some secret SDC stuff," the heiress said as she talked about her boyfriend. "Mostly low-level though."

Penny asked, "You trust Jaune that much?"

"Yeah," Weiss replied in a questioning tone. "Do you not like that?"

"I didn't imply that," Penny replied. "I'm sure Jaune is a great guy."

"Okay... Well, Jaune is trustworthy enough, in my personal opinion, to know of my password to SDC servers." Weiss then paused. "I mean, what if something happens to me, God forbid? I am next-in-line as CEO and Chairman of the SDC, so I have a target painted on my back. I want him to have access to my stuff in case I... Well... I'm not around anymore, to say the least."

"You don't have to justify it to me," Penny replied. "I'm not you. Besides, deciding who gets access to what is way above my paygrade in terms of my relationship to your family's company."

Then, the pager tones went off, followed by a dispatcher giving out an EMS call over the radio. "I'll go to it," Weiss said as Penny began to follow her to the fire pole nearby. After Weiss slid down, Penny grabbed the pole with her hands, wrapped her legs around it, and slid down to the first floor as well. When she reached the first floor, she saw Ren and another volunteer begin to board the ambulance while carrying their gear in their hands.

After Penny grabbed her gear and put her helmet on, she ran over to the back of the ambulance and opened the back door to get in, closing the door just as Ambulance 201 pulled out of the station. As she sat down in a bench seat, she asked, "What's the call for?"

"Third-party from a therapist," Ren replied. "Bravo response for a suicidal patient that's non combative and actually wants to go to the hospital. PD is sending a patrol car down too just in case."

"That's rare," Weiss said. "Usually they're full of fresh cutting scars and not exactly the most cooperative. My first medical when I was 12 was one of those. That girl was like 14 and had a really fucked-up life. To make a long story short, her stepfather was abusive to her and her mom in all 3 ways-sexual, mental, and emotional-until she was finally taken away by the police and given to her biological father, apparently. Right after that, my father forbade me from going on EDP calls until I was 14 because I had very traumatising nightmares for a few nights, though I snuck in on a few more that were less... Traumatic, I guess... When he wasn't around."

"Oh my God," Penny said in shock. "They let you get on the ambulance that young for a call like that?"

"Yeah," Weiss replied. "Wasn't the smartest decision I made, since I had to throw out a really nice white dress I had because I got her blood on it when she wiped her left arm on my dress."

Then, a paid firefighter in the front said, "Alrighty, boys and girls, we're here." Penny got up and opened the back door of the ambulance to let her, Weiss, and Ren out.

Outside was the therapist and the patient, who was a young adult woman with blonde hair wrapped in a ponytail and looked to be around her early 20s, which was around Weiss's age of 23-going-on-24. Weiss and the paid captain on the ambulance walked up to her. The paid lieutenant asked, "So, you wish to go to the hospital, correct?"

"Yes," said the patient in a quiet and sad voice. "I need help."

"We understand," Weiss replied. "Come with us."

As Weiss led the patient to the ambulance, a police officer walked up to the paid captain and said, "So I assume we're not needed here anymore?"

"I'd say so. The girl seems to be non combative and she doesn't have any fresh scars, though she does have some old ones on her right arm." The paid captain then turned to the therapist. "Thank you for calling us, sir."

The therapist replied, "You're welcome. I hope she gets the care she needs."

"I do too," he replied as he walked back to the ambulance.

As the patient laid down on the stretcher, she said, "I hope I didn't waste too much of your time."

"No you didn't," Weiss replied. "Trust me, we've gotten calls that are much stupider than this, like those frequent flyers who call us for the 5th God damn time these past 2 months because they stubbed their toe or because their stomach hurts because they overate. I'd say a suicidal subject is a necessary call by far." Weiss always hated people nicknamed "frequent flyers," who were people who basically abused the fire department's emergency medical services system by calling 911 for almost every single little thing. "And then I'm thinking in the back of my mind, "Ugh, why did you call the fire department if you could just drive yourself to the hospital or call a taxi, if you even need to go at all?""

"Wow," the patient replied. "I'd wanna punch that asshole in the face for making me waste my time."

"I wish I could sometimes to some of those flyers," she replied. "But then I like to step back and be the bigger person. That, and I don't wanna get expelled from my fire company."

"Oh my," the patient said. "Well... Anyways, I hope I just get some form of help." She then sighed. "I could used some, because I've been depressed, clinically at least, since I was 16, and it probably started a few years prior to that when I was like 13." She then began to get emotional. "I don't wanna live my life like this anymore, trying to decide whether I should live or try to end my own life every day."

"Oh my God," Penny said in shock. "My heart aches for you... I've had some issues myself over PTSD."

"Really? You have PTSD?" Weiss was surprised.

"Yeah," Penny replied. "An Atlesian Army doctor diagnosed me with it 2 years back. He said it had something to do with the Pyrrha battle." She then sighed. "Sometimes I still relive what I remember from that at night."

"Oh," Weiss said as she began to feel bad for the robot girl. "That's... Unfortunate..."

* * *

At 1:04 in the morning, the sleeping duty crew was suddenly awoken by the sound of their pagers once again ringing. This time, the tones for the siren also were transmitted, indicating this was a fire-rescue call.

As Penny and the others shuffled tiredly but quickly out of bed and slipped their hip boots on, the siren control box downstairs clicked on with a loud thud as the siren wound up. The tired girl could only recall scant info of the call as it came through the radio. What she knew was that it was some sort of gas leak.

Penny and Weiss were the last to leave the bunk room, quickly running to the fire pole that led to Truck 201's bay. As they wrapped their arms and legs around it and slid down one at a time, they could hear the ambulance in the next bay begin to start up as all 3 outswing doors for the bays were opened by other firefighters to let in volunteers running from their homes.

As Penny put her gear on in the ambulance/rescue bay, Ambulance 201 left with a full crew aboard a minute and a half after the call had come in. By now, Penny could feel her circuits almost beating rapidly like a heart. After she put all of her gear on, she ran to the truck bay to get on Truck 201 as several volunteers ran into the station to fill the other trucks.

As Penny and Weiss got aboard Truck 201, Ren started up the truck from the driver's seat. "Looks like I'll drive," he said. Ren did not mind driving, but it also kind of bummed him out, since it often meant he had to stay with the truck the whole time.

"Get us there soon," Weiss said as she sat in the front next to Ren. "It sounds like a major gas leak."

Penny asked as she sat behind Weiss, "What's going on?"

"It's a reported natural gas leak in a canalside warehouse," she replied, referring to an old shipping canal that ran through the neighbourhood and in fact right next door to the firehouse that was now mostly used for recreational boating. "The caller says she does not know how long the gas had been leaking." As she said that, 2 more firefighters hopped into the truck.

Within 3 minutes and 40 seconds of the call, all 10 seats were filled, and Truck 201 pulled out of the building. Weiss radioed, "Fire Alarm, Truck 201's en route with a crew of 10, all interior."

"10-4."

Then, another radio transmission came through. "Ambulance 201 to Fire Alarm, urgent!"

"All other units clear the air. Ambulance 201 go ahead."

"We just had an explosion at the warehouse... Uhhh... We got heavy flames from that area and we felt it from our 10-10. Transmit a 10-60 for a major emergency!"

"10-4." Then, 3 beeps went over the radio. "Fire Alarm to all units responding to Box 266, a 10-60 has been transmitted per the orders of Ambulance 201." A 10-60 meant that, automatically, 2 alarms would be transmitted, and all administrative chiefs and the fire commissioners would be notified to respond as well. Thus, the assignment was upgraded from 2 companies, a fire patrol station, and an Assistant District Chief to 10 companies, 4 fire patrol stations, a District Chief, an Assistant District Chief, and all available administrative personnel from both the fire department and the fire patrol. Normally, administrative personnel only were notified on 4th Alarms and above.

"Holy shit," Weiss said to herself before turning to Ren. "That's not good."

"Looks like we're going to work," Ren shouted to everyone in the truck. "The whole warehouse blew up."

Ruby, who just now was noticed by Penny, said to herself, "Oh my God..." She then herself noticed Penny and said to her, "Oh hey, Penny!"

"Ruby," Penny replied enthusiastically. "I'm glad you could make it." She then sighed. "This is gonna be a big one."

At 1:10, Truck 201 arrived to what remained of the canalside warehouse. There was debris strewn across the street, and the windows of the apartment building across the street were completely shattered. Immediately, Penny and Ruby ran out of the truck to secure the hydrant and supply the truck with water as Weiss and Ren raised the aerial ladder up to begin doing master stream operations.

People streamed out from the apartment building across the street, awoken by the blast, as more units arrived on scene. Weiss was _handed_ a 2 1/2-inch hose line with a red nozzle attached on the end by Ren. She said, "Raise it to 85 feet so it goes just over the top of what used to be the roof."

"You got it," Ren replied as Weiss climbed up to the top with the nozzle and hose. When she reached it, Ren began operating the controls for the ladder, raising it slowly to 85 feet. As it rose, Weiss looked down upon the burning ruins of the warehouse. The roof was almost completely caved in, a majority of all 5 floors of the warehouse were obliterated, the canalside wall had mostly collapsed into the canal, and an intense fire raged in the rubble below.

Weiss then radioed, "Truck 201 Ladder Pipe to Truck 201 Pump Operator, charge my line! Charge my line!"

"10-4, charging the Ladder Pipe line."

Weiss then said to herself as she braced for water to fill the hose, "Here we go..." Once water reached her, she slowly opened up the bale of the red nozzle, spraying water onto the fire below. "Look at all that debris... It'll take hours to get all the hotspots here..."

Meanwhile, on the ground, Yang, who had arrived on the rear step of Rescue 201 at 11:12, was tasked with operating the rescue's deck gun. Below her, operating the pump panel, was Winter. "Just make sure you keep it aimed at the building," she said to Yang as she charged the deck gun from the pump panel. "Preferably through a window, or as I should say, the remains of a window frame. Don't worry about backblast or anything. This is not a hose. You'll feel nothing if you grab it."

"Got it," Yang replied as she aimed the deck gun through a window frame into the building. As it pumped 500 gallons of water per minute into the warehouse, Yang took her helmet off and put it to the side before yawning and wiping her eyes. "Say, Winter," she said as she turned to her.

Winter replied, "What is it?"

"Looks like this will be a, _L__ong, _night for us," Yang replied in a funny tone as she made a pun based off of her last name. "Eh? Ehhh?"

Winter looked at her, annoyed, before facepalming and saying, "God Damn it, Yang, with your puns..." She then laughed and said, "But yes, this will be a long night, no pun intended on my end. I hope that you, _Schnee, _to it that you stay on focus for this fire." She looked at the blonde with a "gotcha" face.

"Touché," Yang replied. "Touché..."


	37. Season 2: Part 17

_**March 4, 2021**_

"Lieutenant Rose," said Jaune, dressed in formal military attire, at a special meeting of his company at Beacon Academy at 4:07 P.M. "Do you accept the addition of Sergeant Penny Schumacher Polendina into your platoon?" He stood beside Penny as Ruby and the rest of the company stood before him.

"I do, sir," Ruby replied as she rendered a salute to him. She then turned to Penny and stood at ease. "Do you, Sergeant Penny Schumacher Polendina, accept this position in my platoon?"

"I do, ma'am," Penny replied as she rendered a salute to Ruby before returning to at ease.

Ruby then continued. "Do you promise to protect every member of this platoon with your life, as well as every other hunter, soldier, sailor, marine, coast guardsman, or airman you come across?"

"Yes, ma'am," Penny replied.

"Welcome aboard," Ruby told her as the company clapped. She then hugged Penny and whispered to her, "Welcome home..."

Penny smiled and told her, "I always knew Vale felt more like home to me than Atlas."

"Alright," Jaune said. "Now that we got that out of the way, let's get to our mission briefing."

* * *

At 9:38 P.M., Ruby's platoon arrived at a small borough towards the southern end of Vale, near the twin walled cities of Apamea and Sparta. They landed in a transport plane at a small airfield that served the rural county the borough was located in. Their mission was to hunt a nasty infestation of Grimm nearby consisting of several nests.

At 10:12 P.M., Ruby led a team consisting of herself, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Penny, and Ren to attack one of the nests, which was located in a clearing deep in a forest. Ruby led from the front.

As the gang walked through the woods, their weapons ready to go, Blake said to Weiss, "So, we can finally have more than 3 officers now?"

"Yep," Weiss replied. "It was announced yesterday. The city and the VCVFA have agreed to let volunteer companies possess as many captains and lieutenants as they like, though only the 1st captain can have their own car though. We voted to hold elections for the new officers' positions on the 10th."

"I heard from somebody else that we're gonna expand the firehouse soon," Ren told the group as he cleaned one of his StormFlower guns.

"Oh yeah," Weiss replied. "That vote will be on the 10th too. They want to split up our rescue-engine into separate engine and rescue units to hold more firefighters. My dad told me about it."

Ruby then suddenly shushed the group as she whispered, "Wait!" As the group paused, they all heard the distinct rustling of leaves nearby. "I think that's the Grimm." She then aimed her rifle down in the direction of the rustling as everyone else got into position.

Through her scope, Ruby saw a black shape in the near distance. Suddenly, it turned towards Ruby. Yang said, "Is it Grimm?"

"Yep," Ruby quickly replied. "And it's coming right at us!"

Penny immediately sprung into action. As her back opened up and her knives got into position, she said, "Permission to fire, ma'am?"

"Permission granted," Ruby replied as she and Blake stepped out of the way.

A ball of light then formed as the knives vertically spun around in a circle above Penny. After about 3 seconds of this, Penny thrust her arms forward, and a beam of light shot through the forest and directly into the path of an incoming Ursa Major. As the beam hit the Ursa Major, it roared and fell to the ground before being blown to pieces and disappearing in a haze of smoke.

"We just alerted the other members of the nest," Yang said. "Let's go get 'em."

* * *

Meanwhile, at base camp, Jaune oversaw operations. As he looked at a digital map of the area on a computer, he heard a radio nearby squawk, "Lieutenant Rose to Base Camp!"

Jaune immediately picked up the mic on the radio and replied, "Captain Arc on, go ahead, over."

"Do we have any air units, preferably heli units from the Army, in the area?" The background of the transmission seemed chaotic.

"Standby at this time, over." Jaune then walked over to Velvet, who was manning a computer and another radio, and asked, "Sergeant First Class Scarlatina, are there any helicopter units in the area from the Army?"

"I'll check," Velvet replied as she typed away at a computer, looking for info on a Hunting Corps intranet. As she looked at available units from other branches, she said to Jaune, "There's a Battalion of attack helis based about 33 minutes flying time from here that are part of the 300th Aviation Regiment of the Army."

"Perfect," Jaune replied before going back to the original radio and saying, "Base Camp to Lieutenant Rose, over."

"Go ahead, sir," Ruby replied frantically.

"We got a Battalion of attack helis 33 minutes away in flying time from 300th Aviation," Jaune said. "Do you need them to respond to your area, over?"

"Affirmative," Ruby replied. "Also, send us a second team of hunters to our coordinates, over."

"Roger. We got your approximate coordinates on the computer. We'll send them out. What conditions are you dealing with?"

"We got... Agh shit! We got at least 17 Grimm combatants, 5 are KIA at this time. We believe this is the original nest of the 3 we are supposed to destroy. Staff Sergeant Lie Ren **(A/N: They say Nora and Ren's names in full over the radio as to not confuse the two of them since they share the family name Lie)** is injured, but his injuries are not severe at this time, over."

"Roger that. Help's on the way." Jaune then ran over to grab his Crocea Mors from the table before sliding it into its sheath. He then checked his pistol by taking out the magazine and looking to make sure if there were enough bullets in it. He then said to the camp, "I'm going to Ruby's position. I'll be right back."

* * *

_**March 5, 2021**_

"Well," Ren said as he stood up from a wheelchair in front of a military hospital in Vale City at around 10 in the morning. "It wasn't a break, thank God." As he did, 2 nurses took the wheelchair back into the building.

He was surrounded by Nora, Jaune, and Ruby, who agreed to help him back to his home. Nora, holding her and Ren's daughter Leona in her arms, said, "So it was just a sprain and a scratch?"

"Yep," Ren replied as he walked over. "It was fixed easily. The gash from the claw healed itself due to aura, and the sprain went away with a temporary active healing cast."

"Good," Jaune replied. "Well, in other news, I got a call from Signal, and they want me to start teaching there full-time starting in August this year. They're gonna stick me in a 13-to-14-year-old Command class."

"Ugh," Ruby replied. "I always hated Command classes, especially in Signal. It was literally just an hour of the teacher talking about military command structures and how to give and receive orders. At least in Beacon we began to receive semi-relevant training on how to be a commanding officer. But, here I am, a recently-made commissioned officer." The rest of the group laughed in agreement. "Please, Jaune, be more energetic than my teachers there."

"I'll try," Jaune said back.

Then, Leona reached out to touch Ren, causing him to hold out one of his fingers for her to grasp onto. He said, "Your daddy's okay, Leona. Your daddy's okay."

Leona then smiled and laughed. Ruby said to Jaune, "She's cute as hell."

"You can say that again," Jaune replied. "A lot of love went into that baby." He did not realize how what he said could be taken differently than what he meant.

Nora then burst out laughing at Jaune's remark, saying, "Oh my God, do you realize what you just said?"

Jaune paused, and then realized what he said. "Oh... I didn't mean for it to be sexual at all, guys." He then paused again. "I should just stop talking right now, right?"

* * *

_**March 10, 2021**_

"Alright," Winter said as she began the company meeting in the ballroom. "Tonight, before we do anything else, we must get to elections for the new company officers' positions. Now, if you have not heard, the city and the VCVFA has now allowed volunteer fire companies to have as many captains and lieutenants as they want. The social officers and the fire officers have decided to set the number of captains at 3 and the number of lieutenants at 9. We have found candidates for all of the open positions."

"The sheet to vote is in the social office," Hermann said as he pointed to the social office, located to the right of the ballroom. "And before we begin, I want to clear up any confusion. First off, only 1st captains can have their own car and respond with red lights and sirens. Second, we are only holding elections for the 2nd and 3rd captains, and the 3rd through 9th lieutenants. Spots already taken will not be up for grabs until the regular elections in December."

"Alright," Winter said. "Go vote." Everyone attending the meeting then stood up and formed a line into the social office to begin voting.

In line, Ruby, behind Yang and in front of Denis, said, "It was honestly about time they did this."

"Yeah," Yang replied. "Having only 3 officers was bad, especially in large companies like us with... How many guys do we got here?"

"88 as of last week," Denis replied. "58 people attended tonight's meeting."

After about 10 minutes, the voting was all done. Winter said, after sitting down and casting her ballot, "We will now have a paid firefighter count the votes."

The paid captain of the ambulance, who was sitting near the social office, then stood up and said, "I'll make sure it's done soon." He then walked in and closed the door to begin.

"Onto other business," Alfred said. "Tonight, we will have a hand vote to expand the station and buy a new rescue and a new engine. This will be three separate votes. Arthur, your turn to speak."

"Thank you," Arthur Kirkridge replied as he stood up. Behind him and the social and fire officers was a slideshow presentation on a computer projector. "This presentation will detail what we have agreed upon for the expansion of the firehouse, plus the 2 new pieces of apparatus we will be buying." He then used a clicker to move to the next page of the slideshow. That page was a detailed map of the expansion, showing the exterior and the interior. "We will be tearing down the 4-story apartment building next to us, which hasn't been occupied in several years due to foundation issues, and we will build a 2-story addon next to the truck bay. It will primarily consist of another bunkroom on the second floor with fire pole and stair access to the ground floor, plus several extra rooms we can use for storage. The first floor will contain the new bay for the rescue, we hope. It will have more space for gear lockers as well."

He then clicked to go to the second page, which showed the plans for the new rescue. "This will be a heavy-duty walk-in rescue to be built by Avex Manufacturing. It will not be an engine-rescue. It will carry 10 seats in the front cab, 9 with SCBA, in a setup similar to Truck 201. In the back, we will have a walk-in body that can be accessed from the rear only. It will have 6 seats with SCBA along the right side of the cab inside, as well as 4 seats without SCBA at the end of the walk-in cab behind the front cab. We will have 6 extra SCBAs carried in the inside compartments behind the sideways-facing seats, plus a rack of 10 sets of turnout gear across from those seats. This may seem like a lot of seats, but the fact is that we are getting a lot of people to show up to fire calls, so those 20 seats may go relatively fast."

Ruby said to Weiss, "Woah... That's a huge rescue."

"It sure is," Weiss replied.

Arthur then clicked onto the next page, detailing the replacement engine. "This will be the primary replacement for Rescue 201. It will hopefully be an Avex Manufacturing engine. It will carry 10 seats, 9 with SCBA, in the same layout as Truck 201. Its pump will be rated at 3000 gallons of water per minute, and its tank will hold 1000 gallons of water. It will hold 6 preconnected side-mounted attack lines in the same setup as Truck 201 and will hold not 1, but 2 5-inch supply lines plus a 2 1/2-inch line for either supply or secondary attack out of the back hosebed. It will hold a rack of 10 sets of turnout gear on the right side of the hosebed. The left side will carry 3 hard suction hoses in case we need to draft from a river or the canals."

Finally, he went to the final page. "The costs listed are the costs of the addition, the new trucks, and the new equipment we will buy for them. We will also hold a fourth hand vote to buy a gear rack for Truck 201 to fit more spare gear on it and free up a compartment."

"Thank you," Winter said. "Now, all in favor of the addition, raise your hand." She then counted all the hands that had arisen in support. "All opposed, raise your hand." After counting zero votes for opposition, she said, "Any abstentions?" After counting a few abstentions, she said, "Alright then, the measure to expand the firehouse has been approved."

Then, the paid captain counting the votes came out of the social office and said, "I counted all the votes."

Winter then stood up and walked over to him, saying, "Thank you." She then read the total tallies off of the sheet. "Okay, allow me to announce the results of the special election as follows." She then walked back over to her seat and sat down before saying, "As of today, the 2nd Captain of the Vigilant Fire Company is... Me? Oh my..." She then laughed. "Thank you..."

The crowd before her then clapped in congratulations of her. Weiss said, "You rock!"

Winter smiled and gave a thumbs up to her sister in response before continuing, saying, "The 3rd Captain is Julian Sagefield." After a round of applause for the 18-year veteran, Winter said, "The 3rd Lieutenant is Michael Kirkridge." After another round of applause, Winter said, "The 4th Lieutenant is Amhlaidh Egret." Another round of applause followed. "The 5th Lieutenant is Dafydd ap Llewelyn." A round of applause for the 9-year veteran followed. "The 6th Lieutenant is Eva Tietz." Eva, a 14-year veteran, a cousin of Weiss, and Alfred's daughter, smiled as another round of applause followed. "The 7th Lieutenant is Matthew Goldstein." The audience then clapped in appreciation of the 7-year veteran. "The 8th Lieutenant is Ling Hua Qiao." The 11-year veteran patted herself on the back as the audience clapped for her. "And last, but most certainly not least, the 9th Lieutenant is Ross Key." The youngest of the bunch, he was 19 years old and had 7 years of experience.

Hermann said, "Let's give a thunderous round of applause one last time for our new officers, shall we?" The entire crowd, including the newly-elected officers, clapped and cheered in response.

* * *

_**VFC OFFICERS AS OF 2021:**_

1st Captain: Arthur Kirkridge (Age: 54. 38 years in the VFC.)

2nd Captain: Winter Schnee (Age: 28. 16 years in the VFC.)

3rd Captain: Julian Sagefield (Age: 38. 18 years in the VFC.)

1st Lieutenant: Hermann Schnee (Age: 53. 41 years in the VFC.)

2nd Lieutenant: Alfred Schnee (Age: 50. 38 years in the VFC.)

3rd Lieutenant: Michael Kirkridge (Age: 30. 18 years in the VFC.)

4th Lieutenant: Amhlaidh Egret (Age: 34. 17 years in the VFC.)

5th Lieutenant: Dafydd ap Llewelyn (Age: 24. 9 years in the VFC.)

6th Lieutenant: Eva Tietz (Age: 28. 14 years in the VFC.)

7th Lieutenant: Matthew Goldstein (Age: 25. 7 years in the VFC.)

8th Lieutenant: Ling Hua Qiao (Age: 25. 11 years in the VFC.)

9th Lieutenant: Ross Key (Age: 19. 7 years in the VFC.)


	38. Season 2: Part 18

_**March 12, 2021**_

It was a clear Friday morning on Patch Island, just off the coast of Vale City. The birds were singing, the sun was up in the sky, and there were few clouds in the sky. Apart from a few cars from the residents as they went to work in the city, everything was rather quiet and peaceful.

Then, the shrill sound of a far-off siren pierced the air, quickly followed by the sound of low-pitched air horns much closer. A fire call had just come into Signal Fire Company and Patch First Aid Squad, the only 2 fire companies on the island.

Qrow was in the process of pouring himself a bowl of cereal when he first heard his Patch First Aid pager go off, followed by the sirens and then his second pager for Signal Fire go off. He turned to his pagers and said, "Sorry, Signal, but I'm gonna have to take this one in for Patch." Having been a member of both fire companies since his teenage years, he had served as Captain of the Signal Fire Company since last year. **(A/N: Normally, you can only be in 1 fire company at a time, unless you are part of a fire company that historically was only an ambulance and rescue provider, such as Patch First Aid Squad, until reforms in the VCFD in 1960 expanded ambulance services and started medical first responder services amongst companies without ambulances. Also, it should be noted that the Branwen family founded both Signal Fire and Patch First Aid.)**

After leaving his house, he jumped into Car 88, the 1st Captain's car of Signal Fire, and radioed, "Fire Alarm, Car 88's en route." He had decided to respond as the Captain of Signal Fire rather than as a regular firefighter for Patch First Aid that day.

To his surprise, Blake answered back, replying with, "10-4, just so you are aware, utilities are en route as well for the gas leak. They have a 35 minute ETA."

"10-4," Qrow replied as he drove onto the road and flipped his lights and siren on.

Then, Taiyang's voice went over the air, radioing, "Fire Alarm, Car 87's en route. I copy the info about utilities." He, too, was a member of both companies, and had been Captain of Patch First Aid since last year.

3 and a half minutes later, Qrow and Taiyang both pulled up at the scene at the same time. The location of the gas leak was a small residential home with wood siding. By now, the family had evacuated.

Qrow stepped out of Car 88 and walked towards the back of the vehicle to grab his turnout gear as he radioed with a portable radio, "Fire Alarm, Car 88's 10-84 on the box. We got a single-story wood-framed house. The family inside has evacuated."

Taiyang, after putting his helmet on only, walked up to the family and asked, "What seems to be the problem, sir?"

The patriarch of the seemingly young family replied, "We were all asleep when we heard the gas alarm go off. We smelled a strong odor of natural gas in the house and around it. Do you smell it?"

"I sure do," Taiyang replied as he sniffed the air. He then turned to a fully-geared-up Qrow and said, "Hey Qrow, think I should tell utilities to expedite? The odor's pretty strong."

"Wouldn't be a bad idea," Qrow said as he adjusted his tan long coat with orange stripes and pulled tight the straps on his personal SCBA pack. "Why not, Tai?"

"Got it," Taiyang replied as the sirens of other vehicles drew closer. Eventually, an ambulance from PFAS showed up. Out of it stepped 6 volunteers, 3 of whom were interior firefighters that immediately grabbed packs off the truck. One of them, a recently-designated 2nd Captain, asked Qrow, "Where do you want these guys, Qrow?"

"Tell 'em to grab the gas meter and start scanning the house for natural gas," Qrow replied as he walked over to the front of the house, sniffing the air as he went and noticing a distinct and strong gas smell. "Also, nobody light up anything, and no smoking!"

10 minutes passed. It was now 16 minutes into the call. By now, crews had left the house after they established that there was indeed natural gas in the house, and going off of the meter, there was a lot of it.

Qrow and Taiyang congregated behind PFAS's heavy rescue. Qrow said, "So, did ya hear Blake on the radio working dispatch?"

"Sure did," Taiyang replied. "She's a really good dispatcher, actually."

Suddenly, what sounded like a roar of jet engines emanated from the house as Qrow and Taiyang were both thrown to the ground by a strong force of wind and debris flew in every direction. When they both got up and began to regain their hearing, Qrow saw several panicked firefighters run away from him. He yelled, "What the fuck was that?!"

Taiyang walked to the front of the heavy rescue to see what had just happened. In front of him lay the remains of what was once the house. It had been blown to pieces by an intense gas explosion. He immediately grabbed his radio from his belt and said, "Car 87 to Fire Alarm, urgent!"

"Car 87."

"Transmit a Code 99 for this box immediately! We just had a huge explosion level the whole house!" Taiyang then noticed several wounded firefighters walking around aimlessly, still in shock over the explosion.

"10-4, Code 99 to be transmitted."

* * *

Yang, working at a Hunting Corps recruitment office that day, was sitting at a computer desk talking to a client when she received a text on her cellphone just as the call finished up. "Alright, my pleasure. Thank you. Goodbye." She then hung up as she read the text, which was from Blake.

"ur dad and ur uncle were in a gas explosion on patch. theyre both ok afaik. working dispatch rn for the box"

Yang's heart immediately sank in response to the text as she dialed Ruby's phone number. She thought to herself, _"This can't be good... I hope they actually are okay..." _After a few seconds, Ruby answered up from home, having just come home several hours ago from a night-time training session. "Ruby, it's Yang. Dad and Qrow were involved in a gas explosion on Patch."

Ruby, over the phone, replied with a shocked, "What?! No!"

"Calm down, Ruby. Blake is working at Fire Alarm today. She says they're both okay." Yang then sighed. "When I get out at 3, I'll tell you as much as I know about it, okay?"

* * *

At 3:36 P.M., Yang, George, and Ruby sat down at a kitchen table at their apartment. Yang started off by saying, "Okay, so Blake called and updated me on what happened not too long ago."

Ruby asked immediately, "Are Dad and Uncle Qrow okay?"

"Yes," Yang said, much to the relief of Ruby. "They're shaken up, but unhurt. However, several firefighters from their companies are in critical condition." Then, Yang got another phone call, again from Blake. "Hello? No... No way..." There was a long pause. "Fuck, that's awful... Okay, I'll go over to his house with Ruby and George soon. Bye."

George asked, "What happened, love?"

Yang wiped her face and said, "A firefighter from Patch First Aid was just declared dead at the hospital. Blake said it was Qrow's cousin. Also, a student at Signal who was part of Signal Fire is taking a turn for the worse."

Ruby asked, "Which one?"

"The cousin? It was Cyril." Cyril and Qrow had been close friends for a long time, having been born just a year apart. He had been born to Qrow and Raven's uncle, and had known Yang and Ruby since they were infants. He, like several other Branwens, was in both the Signal Fire Company and the Patch First Aid Squad. He had served for 7 years in the Army before transferring to the Gendarmerie. "This sucks..."

"Oh no," Ruby replied. "Why Cyril?"

"We should start heading out there now," George said.

"Probably," Yang replied as she got up to get her wallet. "We'll take the subway since there's three of us."

* * *

At 7:35 P.M., almost the entire Branwen family had gathered at Cyril's house, grieving and sharing memories of Cyril.

Taiyang, Yang, George, and Ruby all sat together on a couch as Taiyang talked to Qrow's father. Ruby said to Yang, "I kinda feel out of place here, to be honest, since I'm not a Branwen by blood."

"Stop worrying," Yang reassured her sister. "Nobody here cares that you weren't born to Raven. You're still part of the family." She then sighed and pointed to Qrow. "Uncle Qrow's over there talking to his mother. I heard him mention that he's gonna be holding new officer elections for Patch First Aid next week. Cyril was planning to run for a Lieutenant's spot, but... Yeah..."

Taiyang then turned to his daughters and said, "Can one of you run to Signal Fire and see how that kid from there is doing in the hospital?"

Suddenly, Qrow shouted, "Everyone listen!" He then signed as everyone went quiet. "I got some bad news about that kid from Signal. Uhhh, he... He didn't make it. He just died about 10 minutes ago."

Taiyang then got up. "Well, I gotta run back to the firehouse at school." He then wiped his eyes. "Damn, this fucking day sucks..." He then checked his phone as he got the same exact message that Qrow had received.

* * *

_**March 17, 2021**_

"In life," began a priest at a house of worship as he presided over the caskets of both fallen firefighters, both draped in Valeanian flags as 12 honor guards from the military kept watch. "Cyril Branwen and Russell Harriet were both dedicated to three things: Family, their country, and the fire service. Cyril had served as a volunteer firefighter since he was twelve, following in his family's footsteps. Russell had been a volunteer firefighter for just 5 months, and he had followed his girlfriend into the fire service. Fellow firefighters at both companies described Cyril as a dedicated family man, those families being his own and his brothers and sisters in the fire service, who always had a new idea to help out the department, and they described Russell as a dedicated new member who was willing to take on any challenge."

As the priest went on, Ruby and Yang, both dressed in the formal uniforms of the Vigilant Fire Company, looked on. Ruby thought to herself, _"God, I feel so bad for that kid's girlfriend. He was just barely 15! Then again, I got into Beacon at that age..."_

George, dressed in the Goodwill Hose Company's formal uniform, looked over at Yang and wondered what she was thinking. _"These are the first LODDs the entire department has had this year... I hope they're the last..."_

About 2 hours later, Qrow and Ruby talked to each other at the cemetery where the two firefighters had just been buried. "So," Qrow said. "How's one of my favorite nieces doing?"

"Not bad," Ruby replied. "Me, Yang, and Blake are doing Intermediate Firefighter-EMT. I'm still doing special training with the Hunting Corps. Being an officer is hard work."

"Hah, and that's just as a Lieutenant. Try being a Major like me. Anyways, how's the king?" Qrow knew of Ruby and Delwyn's relationship.

"Oh! He's doing well." She then smiled, thinking about him. "I apologize if I get a bit flustered, since we're still in the very beginnings of our relationship." She then giggled. "Good God, he's so sweet."

"That's good." Qrow smiled, knowing Ruby had a good relationship. "How's Yang doing with her boyfriend? They still together?"

"Oh yeah," Ruby replied. "George moved in with us. He's still in Goodwill, though. He's, you know, younger than Yang by like 3 years, but he's got his life settled pretty good. And to think, they started as a one night stand and now they're almost inseparable."

* * *

_**March 18, 2021**_

"Captain," asked Ruby, who had went over to the firehouse at around 5 to do a 12 hour duty shift starting at 6, as she peered into Arthur's office. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure thing," Arthur replied. "What do you need?"

"I wanna get engineer training," Ruby replied as she entered the office. An engineer was the term used for firefighters who could drive and operate the trucks. "Who would I go to to get that?"

"You'd go to Weiss's dad," Arthur replied as he pulled out a folder carrying engineer training forms. "The 1st Lieutenant handles engineer training at Vigilant. All you need to do is fill this form out and leave it on his desk. He'll call you within the next few days, and from there, you 2 can set up dates to drive around the block and pump out of a hydrant in our area. If you're doing the truck, you'll also operate the aerial ladder on an abandoned building."

"Thank you," Ruby replied as she was given a form to fill out before sitting in a chair and filling it out with a blue pen on the captain's desk across from him. Once she was done, she said, "So, how long will it take me to get all of the trucks, including the ambulance, out of the way?"

"About 5 to 6 weeks," Arthur replied. "You need to do 4 driving evolutions and 2 pump and aerial evolutions per truck, with the exception of the ambulance, which only needs you to do 2 driving evolutions."

Then, they both heard the pager tones and siren tones go over the radio. Ruby quickly sprinted out of the office and to her gear locker as Arthur walked out of the building from the front to get into Car 5. As the siren of the station blared loudly, the 2 paid firefighter-paramedics slid down the ambulance/rescue bay's fire pole from upstairs. Ruby pulled her boots up as she then put her coat and helmet on. From what the dispatcher said over the radio after the tones ended, it sounded like a structure fire in Goodwill's first-due.

The bay doors had been opened by the pager tones, which set off a control box connected to them. The paid firefighters started the ambulance up as Ruby ran over to it to get on along with 3 other volunteers at the station. Ruby and one other volunteer jumped into the seats behind the paid firefighters, while 2 other volunteers jumped into the back of the ambulance.

Once everyone was in the rig, the ambulance pulled out of the station, lights flashing and sirens blaring. As they did, 4 to 6 other volunteers ran into the station. Ruby quickly slipped into the straps of her seat's SCBA as she said, "This is a fire, right?"

"Yep," said the paid lieutenant in the front seat. "Multiple calls reporting flames on the 1st floor of an office building, plus multiple fire alarm station activations and a street box pull."

Then, Ruby heard Car 6 over the radio say, "Car 6 to Fire Alarm."

Dispatch replied, "Car 6."

"If we're getting multiple calls and a box pull in the building and out on the street, go ahead and strike a Code 99 for this fire, K."

"10-4," Dispatch replied.

Ruby said, "Alright, looks like we'll be going to work then." She then took her helmet off and took her mask out of its bag so she could put it on over her face and hair. Once she was done, she leaned forward to pull her SCBA out of its seat so she could reach around and turn it on. Once she turned it on, she waited for about half a minute before she connected her mask's long low-pressure tube to her belt regulator, causing air from her pack to fill her mask. Then, she put her helmet on.

Within 5 minutes of the call, Ambulance 201 from Vigilant and Engine 202 from Goodwill both pulled up at the same time. By then, Car 5, Car 6, Patrol 3, and Salvage 3 had already arrived. Ruby stepped out of the ambulance on air as she ran over to Engine 202 to help pull a second hand line off the rig with 2 other Goodwill firefighters. By now, the first hand line's crew had entered the building from the side as another firefighter used Engine 202's deck gun to partially knock down the raging inferno in the front.

As Ruby and the 2 Goodwill firefighters, both of them also on air, reached the building, they got low and crawled through the front, spraying inside to help cool down the walls as a unit from another company arrived. Ruby thought to herself, _"This should be a quick knockdown. This shouldn't take more than half an hour to knock down completely."_


	39. Season 2: Part 19

Penny and Weiss had arrived on Truck 201 just minutes after Ambulance 201 arrived. They immediately stepped off the truck with their masks on as they attached their low-pressure tubes to their belt regulators to go on air. The 2 then dragged an 1 3/4-inch crosslay hand line from Truck 201 and stretched it into the building, their mission to back up the first line that was already into the building with Goodwill firefighters and Ruby.

As they both squatted as they walked, Penny said to Weiss, "There seems to be an awfully large amount of smoke, Weiss."

"Yeah," Weiss said as she pencilled the ceiling before advancing the hand line in further past a burning reception desk before turning the hose on it as well. "I began to notice that myself." She could see the hand line dragged in by Ruby and the two Goodwill firefighters on the floor, but just barely due to the smoke.

Suddenly, the smoke became even more intense, resulting in Weiss not even being able to see Penny ahead of her. Penny yelled, "This is getting bad! This is getting real bad!"

Weiss immediately radioed, "Truck 201 interior to Vigilant Command."

"Car 5, go ahead, Weiss."

"The smoke just got darker! I can't even see Firefighter Polendina ahead of me!" Then, Weiss began to slowly realize something. "You might wanna tell Incident Command about this!"

"10-4, Car 5 to Incident Command."

"District 2 Chief, go ahead, Car 5."

"The smoke inside is getting too thick! Our guys can't even see their own partners right in front of them."

Then, Ruby frantically radioed, "Everyone, get the hell out! It's gonna flash soon!"

Weiss then yelled to Penny, "It's gonna fucking flash over! Penny, we need to go, now!"

"I was just about to say that myself," Penny replied as she turned around.

Incident Command then urgently radioed, "All engineers, blast your vehicles' air horns. All volunteer officers outside the building, blast your bugles. I want everyone out of that God damn building!"

Weiss and Penny immediately dropped the line and began rapidly crawling out of the building the same way they came as they heard the vehicles outside blast their air horns as well as 3 bugles outside began playing the Retreat call.

At the same time, Ruby and the two Goodwill firefighters, much deeper into the building than Weiss and Penny, had actually begun to stand up and run towards the exit, occasionally bumping into objects along the way and doing so despite the oppressive heat. Ruby yelled, "Stay together! Don't get lost! Follow the hand line!"

A Goodwill firefighter yelled at the other, "Just leave the fucking hand line in the building! We can replace it!"

Eventually, Weiss and Penny stumbled out first as 6 fire patrolmen came down a ground ladder that went to the 3rd floor, where they had been laying canvas tarps to protect expensive computers and office supplies from smoke and water damage.

Ruby and the two Goodwill firefighters stumbled out themselves about a minute later, having ran out of the building. Then, just as Ruby ran from the building, her SCBA still on and sweating profusely, the building flashed, with her just 10 feet from the entrance.

Every ounce of smoke pouring from the building turned into intense flames, blinding some of the firefighters watching, as the force of the flashover forced Ruby onto the ground as searing heat overcame her. Immediately, 2 hand lines opened up and began spraying down the front as Penny, Weiss, George, and Winter all ran over to help Ruby up.

Penny rolled Ruby over onto her side and dragged her further away from the building as Winter ripped her helmet off and threw it to the side, not caring if it broke. George ripped Ruby's mask off as Weiss turned her SCBA off and began undoing the straps. Ruby weakly said, "I'm fine..."

Weiss replied, "We're just making sure, Rubes. Do you feel any burns or discomfort on your back?"

"I do," Ruby replied as Penny and George took her SCBA off completely and laid it down next to her as a paid firefighter-paramedic that had rode with Ruby ran over with a stretcher and a medical bag.

Winter told the paid firemedic, "I think she has minor burns on her back."

"She sure does," Penny replied as she pulled up Ruby's coat and the shirt underneath it, revealing minor burns to her back from the intense outdoor heat. "Nothing some minor treatment won't fix, though. Probably'll have to replace the coat and maybe the boots, though."

* * *

_**March 24, 2021**_

"So," Winter asked as Ruby put on a new coat and a new pair of hip boots at around 5 P.M. "How does the new gear feel?" It looked just like her old gear, except slightly more clean.

"Not much different," Ruby replied. "I can't believe I lasted just 9 months with my old set. I'm not even off probation yet." She then laughed.

"Same. I don't think I've ever seen a probie burn out their old gear in the almost 17 years I've been here." Winter then grabbed a clipboard with paper on it to write down the serial numbers of the new gear Ruby had. "Alright, you said you wanted to receive driver training, right?"

"Correct," Ruby replied as she took her new gear off to put it away. "I assume your dad's coming tonight to start training?"

"I'm here," Hermann said as he entered the firehouse. "Firefighter Rose, are you ready to start driving?"

Ruby replied as she walked over to him, "I am. I just gotta grab my helmet, my gloves, and my mask bag, and I'll be all set."

"Alrighty," Hermann replied as he walked over to his gear locker to grab his own gear. He then turned to Winter, saying, "Winter, dear, can you tell Weiss I'll be out driving with Ruby?"

"I will, father." Winter then headed for the stairs to prepare for the company meeting and training drill at 6.

Then, Hermann got a phone call. He answered it immediately, recognizing it as an SDC number. He answered, "Hello?"

The male voice on the other end said, "This is Hermann Schnee, correct?"

Hermann immediately paused, recognizing the voice. "Wait... Don't tell me you're her kid... What's up?"

"I'm in Vale now," the voice replied. "I want to join the VFC. My mom died about 2 years ago, as you may know, and I'm gonna start a new life in Vale, and the first stop I want to make is your firehouse."

Hermann replied, "I highly recommend you don't do that. Weiss and Winter know of the affair, but not of your existence. They'll both be pissed if they do."

"I understand," replied the voice. "But you know of the promise you made to my mom after the affair ended and you and your wife became un-separated, right? You said that you would look after her family, did you not?"

The now visibly worried Hermann paused before saying, "Fine. I'll have to break it to the girls tonight after the company meeting then. I have to go, Whitley." He then hung up.

Ruby lied and told him, "I wasn't listening."

"Bullshit you weren't," Hermann replied. "I'll talk about it later. Let's just get to engineer training, Ruby."

* * *

"What the hell do you mean your affair produced a kid?!" Weiss was visibly angry at her father after the company meeting and training drill as Winter looked on in discomfort. "Me and Winter knew all about you and mom having affairs while you two were separated, but why didn't you tell us you actually had a son with Maria?!"

"I didn't tell anyone because I knew it would tear our family apart just as we were getting back together," Hermann replied in a stern voice. "The separation of me and your mom put me on thin ice with not just the rest of our family, but the entire corporation at large. Can you imagine how everyone would react if it came out that I had a biracial son with a faunus servant?!"

Weiss paused and considered her father's argument. "I understand that. Our apparent half-brother's race shouldn't be an issue, but it was, and it still kind of is. Grandpa really screwed us over, huh?"

"Admittedly so," Hermann replied. "He's the biggest reason why our company has had such difficulties with race. He was a great father and grandfather, but good God, were his views on race antiquated at best."

"This still irks me," Winter said to the two of them. "I don't know why. I understand why you hid it, and to be honest, I would too if I were in your shoes, but this still bothers me, father."

"To be honest, I'd be irked too in your shoes." Hermann then signed. "I really don't have any objections to Whitley joining the fire company, though, despite all this, so I guess we'll have to let him in."

* * *

_**March 28, 2021**_

"So," Ghost Pyrrha said to Weiss in her apartment at around 9 at night. "You're asking me to prove to you how I'm not just a figment of your mind trying to cope with the trauma you've suffered, with my death in that car accident 2 years ago being just the tip of the iceberg?"

"Yep," Weiss smugly replied as she drank from a vodka bottle. "I'm outta service until the morning with the alcohol I'm gonna be drinking, so lay at it."

Pyrrha then moved a vase on the kitchen table towards Weiss. "There, I moved something. Why are you doing this?"

"Do you remember that secret you told me about your abortion at Beacon?"

Pyrrha's facial expression became tense as she replied, "Don't you fucking dare ask Jaune about it! Why do you want to prove it so badly?!"

"I want to prove what I heard from you true in my mind," Weiss replied before taking another sip of vodka. "Listen, I just learned I have a fucking half-brother, so I'm on a roll." She then laughed. "I might as well add more drama."

Pyrrha angrily told her, "You don't care about Jaune, do you? Why do you want to hurt him by asking that?"

Weiss's attitude completely changed. She immediately stood up and pointed at Pyrrha, telling her, "Don't EVER fucking say I don't care about Jaune, Pyrrha! He's the sweetest and nicest man I've ever met in my life! He was the first boy to actually like me for me rather than my family and wealth!" She then paused. "Every day, EVERY GOD DAMN DAY, I kick myself for not knowing that sooner. I kick myself for thinking he was shallow enough to only admire me for my money. Look, I keep no secrets from him, none, and I know he doesn't either. Besides, I'm not going to angrily confront him about your pregnancy scare, Pyrrha. So, I'm going to tell you one last time, don't tell me I don't care about Jaune."

Pyrrha, speechless, paused for a while. Then, she said, "You're right. I let my emotions get the best of me, even in death. I still remember when I accidentally threw Jaune onto a wall before the Battle of Beacon. Not my proudest moment, obviously." She then signed. "You know, we really are more in common than we think. The boy, or as I should say, man, we both love saw past our facades. For you, it was your wealth, and for me, it was my fighting abilities. He saw past all of that, and he fell in love with us for who we actually were as people. I know Jaune always saw me as his hero, as the one who gave him wings to fly, but really, he was mine. Before I met him, I had no true friends. As you may know, it is really fucking lonely when you're at the top, whether you were born there or worked your way there, or some combo of both in our cases."

Weiss nodded her head in agreement and said, "I'll admit, I kinda got out of hand too. Anyways, you're right, Pyrrha. I never noticed that. Should I really bring it up to him?" Then, her cellphone rang. Weiss saw that it was Jaune's number. She answered it, saying, "Hello?"

"Weiss, I have something I need to confess to you before we go any further." Jaune was audibly upset. "It's about me and Pyrrha.'

Pyrrha immediately said, "That's a surprise."

"Go ahead," said Weiss, knowing already what he was going to say. "I won't judge you at all. Jaune, whatever it is, know that I still love you. It's in the past anyways. It shouldn't affect us now or in the future."

"Weiss, thank you. You see, back in Beacon, me and Pyrrha obviously had sex, lots of sex. The thing is, at first, we were a little careless, and one thing led to another, and..." Jaune paused as he began to cry on the phone. "Pyrrha became pregnant."

"I see," Weiss replied, trying to fake surprise.

"We couldn't have her parents find out, and we weren't ready to have kids..." Jaune paused to collect himself. "We made the decision to abort the pregnancy." Jaune then broke down over the phone. "Pyrrha would have made a wonderful mother, but it wasn't our time."

By now, Ghost Pyrrha herself was crying in the corner of the room, huddled in a ball as several of her arm and leg bones stuck out from her body further. Weiss said as she tried to comfort Jaune, "Jaune, please stop crying. Pyrrha would have been a wonderful mother indeed, but you said it, you two were nowhere near ready to have kids. I would have made the same choice myself in her shoes. Look, I'll head over to your place so we can talk this out further, okay?"

Jaune, sniffling, replied, "Okay. That'll be good. I'll see you soon."

"And remember, Jaune, I love you."

"I love you too." Jaune then hung up.

Weiss then got up to help Pyrrha up. After she did, she hugged her, saying, "There, there, it's all right."

Pyrrha whispered to her, "Thank you." She then smiled and said, "And don't drive over to his place. You were drinking after all."

"Oh yeah," Weiss replied as they split. "I'll call a cab." The 2 then laughed before Pyrrha disappeared. Weiss then said, "Well, that happened."


	40. Season 2: Part 20

_**April 2, 2021**_

All Schnees in the fire company met to discuss with Whitley, totalling Winter, Weiss, Hermann, Alfred, Elsa (daughter of Alfred), Karl (son of Alfred), Eva Tietz (nee Schnee) (daughter of Alfred), Alvin Krebs (son of Matilda Krebs, Hermann and Alfred's sister), Friedrich Krebs (son of Matilda), Sophie Hammarskjold (nee Krebs) (daughter of Matilda), Adelmar Schnee (cousin of Hermann, Matilda, and Alfred), and Irma Devens (nee Schnee) (cousin of Hermann, Matilda, and Alfred). They met at the Schnee family home in Vale, just down the street from the firehouse, in the dining room.

"Alright," Hermann said, calling the meeting. "Before we begin, I would like to say that please, let's be civil. Anyways, I'd like to discuss Whitley Marino." He then motioned for Whitley to speak.

"Ah yes," he began before sighing in worry. "I am Whitley Marino. You may notice the similarities I share with Hermann, who gladly invited us here tonight. Well, you see, I'm actually his son." After the faces of everyone but Hermann, Weiss, and Winter changed to an expression of shock and disbelief, he continued. "When he and his wife Genoveva were separated, he had a relationship with my mother. As if your jaws haven't dropped far enough yet, however..." He then undid his pants belt partially and reached behind to grab something, that something being a bushy wolf-like tail. Then, small claw-like structures unsheathed from his nails before he tightened his belt again. "My mother was a wolf faunus with ears and claws. I have a wolf tail and claws."

Alfred said, "To be honest, the faunus thing shocks me less than the fact that my brother had a kid with his affair. I mean, everyone here knew he was banging that faunus chic-" He then remembered Whitley was in the room. "I mean, having a relationship with a female servant, but not of your existence, Whitley." Everyone around the table agreed. "And by the way, I'm really sorry about what happened to your mother."

"Thank you," Whitley replied as he sat down. "If you do not know, by the way, I turned in an application to join the Vigilant Fire Company, since I'll be staying in Vale full-time."

Elsa turned to Weiss, sarcastically whispering, "If only Grandpa Schnee was here to see this."

Weiss replied, "Jesus Christ, he'd have a stroke hearing this." They then both quietly laughed. "Hey, at least all of us here are licensed to deal with those."

Suddenly, the conversations at the table were interrupted by a bloodcurdling high-pitched scream from upstairs. Matilda said, "What the hell was that?"

"I'll go look," Winter said as she got up and walked out. As she began to walk up the stairs, she heard the same voice scream again. "Stop your screaming, I'm coming!"

Whitley said, "So, this has been an interesting night."

"You can say that again," Alvin told him.

Hermann said, "I bet a timid servant found a mouse or some bullshit like that."

Then, they all heard Winter rush down the stairs as she yelled, "Dad, radio Fire Alarm and tell them to send Vigilant over here! Klein tried to fucking kill himself!"

Hermann immediately got up as the rest of the table looked at each other in disbelief. "I'll go grab my radio and my medical bag. Weiss, run up and see what can be done with Klein, now!"

* * *

About an hour later, the city coroner's office led the body of loyal but troubled Schnee family servant Klein Sieben out of the house as the Schnee family looked on in shock. He had hanged himself in his bedroom in the house from a beam. The rope burns on his neck were still fresh. He had been plagued by several mental issues throughout his life due to a variety of reasons stemming from his abusive childhood in Atlas.

Whitley said to Weiss, saddened, "This is awful. My mother and Klein were good friends. They always hung out whenever you guys came over to Atlas."

Weiss, tears in her eyes, replied, "Tell me about it..." She then began to cry again. Winter and Whitley responded by hugging each other and Weiss for comfort.

Winter, horrified herself, said, "We should have gotten help for him sooner..."

Hermann, standing next to Alfred, said to him, "I haven't felt this awful and hopeless since Dad died and Genoveva was killed by that drunk driver." He then shook his head in disbelief. "God, we could have done something to prevent this, damn it."

"He had a fucked up life," Alfred said. "His parents were assholes, the adoption system were assholes, and his foster parents died in that car crash he was in years ago he had nightmares about. It's no wonder why he went off the deep end. And you're right, we could have done something."

* * *

_**April 3, 2021**_

"Damn," Blake said to Weiss as the two chatted in Weiss's apartment around 6 P.M. "That's fucking awful."

"I know," Weiss said as she sighed. "These past few days have done a number on me. First there was the fact that me and Winter had a half-brother we never even knew existed, and then Klein hangs himself. What could possibly go crazy next?!"

"Don't tempt fate, Weiss." Blake seemed very concerned. Then, her cellphone rang. However, the number was odd. It had a Menagerie area code, but she didn't recognize it. Fearing it was the White Fang, Blake answered it, saying, "If this is the White Fang, I'm gonna tell you now: Piss the fuck off."

"Woah, woah," the male voice said on the other end. "Attendez, ma fifille. Ne reconnaissez-vous pas la voix de votre père, Blake?"

Blake suddenly paused in shock. Then, after a long pause, she said, "Papa... Oh mon dieu..." She then began to cry. "Vous êtes vivant... Mais... Comment?! Je pensais que Simon t'a tué et maman!"

"Non, ma fifille... We have been in Menagerie ever since the coup."

* * *

_11 Years Ago_

"They're dead," said an assassin as he talked on a phone. Then, he hung up as he and his partner left the bedrooms of Kali and Ghira Belladonna, assuming they had killed both of them in their sleep.

Unbeknownst to them, Ghira happened to have a more advanced version of Blake's semblance, and both of the "people" they had killed were actually clones.

As they left the room, one of them was struck in the head hard with a club by Kali from behind. He fell to the ground, his head hemorrhaging blood as he lay dying. The other assassin tried reaching for his gun, but Ghira wrapped both of his arms around him and bodyslammed him to the ground. He then lifted his head up and slit his throat with a knife, killing him.

Kali said as she looked at the bodies, "We need to get out of Vale."

"We need to try to call Blake first," Ghira replied as he brushed himself off. He then dialed Blake's number. However, she didn't answer. After a minute, he tried again. Once again, no answer. After 4 tries, he gave up and said, "It's no use."

Kali then began to cry. "Did... Did they get her?" She then hugged her husband. "I've lost too much in my life. I can't afford to lose Blake."

* * *

"We've been in Menagerie ever since," Ghira told his daughter. "I have a seat in the House of Representatives here, and I'm going to run for Chieftan in 2024." He then paused. "I'm sorry we didn't contact you earlier. The White Fang's streak of violence has spread worldwide ever since the Battle of Beacon. Simon Urdin managed to spread his message of hate to all branches of the White Fang, especially since Sienna Khan took his place after the battle."

"Oh my..." Blake was still in shock. "I... I want to see you again..."

"We're flying over to Vale soon," Ghira replied. "We'll be here on the 9th and we'll leave on the 14th. Blake, me and your mother are so proud of you. You've accomplished so much already, ma fifille." He then began to get emotional over the phone. "You're... You're the best daughter a parent could ever ask for... I'm so sorry we weren't there to see you grow..."

Blake nodded her head and replied, "Thank you..."

Suddenly, Blake's pager and Weiss's pager both rang for a call. After the tones for the station siren went off as well, Weiss said, "Let's roll."

"Mom, dad, I love you. I need to go to a fire. Au revoir." Blake then hung up and rushed out of the apartment behind Weiss, still wiping her eyes. The call, according to the dispatcher over the radio, was for a fire in a ground-floor convenience store with occupied apartments above.

Within 2 minutes of the call, they had both ran into the station. Blake slipped her sneakers off, slipped her hip boots on, put her helmet on, grabbed her coat and SCBA mask, and then ran over to get on Truck 201. When she found a seat, she zipped and buckled up her coat and began to put on the straps of her seat's air pack as Weiss began to do the same.

Ultimately, the last people to board the truck were Ruby, Penny, and Theresa. Yang decided to ride the rear step of Rescue 201 instead. Once 10 people had boarded, Truck 201 began to pull out of the station within 3 and a half minutes of the call.

Winter, riding in the front next to the driver, yelled out to the back, "We got a working fire according to Ambulance 201. Car 5 is unavailable to respond at this time, so Ambulance 201's paid captain has Vigilant Command. Put your masks on now, we'll be going to work."

Blake and Weiss immediately ripped their helmets off and began to put their masks on, while Ruby told Theresa, "You got the hydrant with Penny, okay?" She then began to put her mask on as well. "Penny, go put your pack on, but don't put your mask on until the hydrant is set up."

"Got it," replied Theresa as she braced herself to dash out once the truck stopped.

"Understood," Penny replied as she reached forward and turned her air pack on just as the truck stopped, her right arm bracing on the truck's air conditioner attached to the roof as her left arm turned the pack on.

Once it was done, Winter yelled, "Hydrant, go!" Penny and Theresa rushed out of the truck and to the back of it. Theresa pulled several lengths of 5-inch supply hose as Penny wrapped it around the hydrant as Truck 201 then pulled forward towards the fire building, a crowd having gathered on the street to watch.

As they secured the hydrant, Ruby and Blake pulled a 2 1/2-inch attack line off of the truck as they secured their masks' low-pressure tubes to their belt-mounted regulators, enabling them to breathe their SCBA's air. By now, the entire convenience store was in flames.

As they approached the building, Weiss gave the thumbs up to the pump operator on Truck 201 to charge the hand line. As soon as water filled their hose, Blake opened up and knocked down the heavy fire in the entrance of the convenience store. By now, firefighters and units from multiple fire companies were on scene.

As the flames turned into thick gray smoke, Ruby and Ren approached the building with a charged 1 3/4-inch hand line and sprayed down the remnants of the fire trailing Weiss and Blake as they went inside. Meanwhile, Penny walked over to the building after charging the hydrant line and went on air as she joined Winter and another firefighter as they entered the stairwell that took them to the floors above to do ventilation.

Inside the building, Weiss and Blake had managed to knock a majority of the fire down. Even so, the air was still thick and hot. Weiss said to Blake, "Be sure to pencil that ceiling!"

Blake replied by aiming the hose at the ceiling and giving it short bursts of water to cool it down. She said, "Good thinking!" By now, they could barely see in front of them due to the smoke.

Above them, a paid firefighter and a volunteer from Ambulance 201 had begun breaking windows on the second floor and smashing holes into the floor to let out smoke. Additionally, Winter, Penny and another firefighter had equipped themselves with water cans, 2 1/2-gallon fire extinguishers, to put out any hotspots on the second floor. The smoke on the second floor was not as bad as it was on the first.

After putting out a hotspot in an apartment, Penny said to Winter, "Lieutenant, want me to relieve one of the guys doing vent work?"

"Sure thing," Winter replied. "Go relieve the volunteer and send him to me."

"Got it," Penny replied as she walked out to go over to the next apartment.

Meanwhile, inside the convenience store, Yang and 2 Goodwill firefighters carried pike poles and water cans and began to tear up shelves of burned goods inside the store to expose any hotspots. She said to them as she pointed to the counter, "Go tear up that thing. If you see any hotspots, use your water can on them."

* * *

_**April 9, 2021**_

At Vale City International Airport, Blake patiently waited for her parents alongside the rest of Team RWBY and Sun at around 5 P.M. near the security area. Ruby said to her, "I can see you're worried."

"Hell yeah," Blake replied, shaking. "I haven't seen my parents for 11 years. There's so much we need to catch up on."

Then, Sun pointed out 2 older adults coming out of security, "Is that woman with the burly dude your mom? She looks like you."

"Oh my God," Blake said as she realized they were both her parents. She then waved to them and said, "Maman... Papa!"

Kali immediately recognized her and ran to her, saying, "Blake!" The 2 then embraced each other as tears began to flow from their eyes. "Ah, ma fifille... Ça fait si longtemps..."

"I know," Blake replied as her father joined in the group hug. "You have no idea how... How ecstatic I am to see both of you..."

Sun said to the rest of Team RWBY, "Doesn't this warm your heart?"

"It does," Yang said, thinking about her emotional reunion with her mother in the past. "It sure does."

Ghira then noticed Sun and said to Blake, "Qui est-ce?"

"Oh yeah," Blake replied. "C'est mon copain, Sun Wukong."

Ghira said in surprise, "_Mon _copain?" He then laughed and said, "He doesn't seem too bad."

Yang then tapped Blake on the shoulder and whispered to her privately, "Are you going to come out to them?"

Blake then remembered that her parents had no idea of her bisexuality. Her eyes shot wide as she began to muster the courage to tell them. "Mom, dad, I have something I need to tell you... Both of you..." They all then sat down in seats across from the packed security area.

Kali said, "What is it, dear? Is it bad?"

"No," Blake replied before sighing. "You see... Before I dated Sun... I dated a member of my team..."

"Okay," Ghira replied, confused. "So, who's on your team?"

"My team is all girls, Dad. I dated my friend Yang, the one with the blond hair, for 2 years before I dated Sun." She then sighed. "Mom, dad, I'm bisexual."

Her parents both paused before Kali said, "Oh... That was... Unexpected..."

"That's it?" Ghira was confused as to why Blake seemed hesitant. "From your tone of voice, I thought you were gonna drop a larger bombshell than that." He then laughed again. "Listen, we don't even care. We hated Simon Urdin for being a homophobe, after all. That's why I resigned as leader all those years ago. You have no idea how sick to my stomach I was when Simon read his stupid little speech after the coup against David when he attacked interracial and homosexual relationships."

"Oh thank God," Blake said to herself. "I'm glad it was no big deal."

Kali replied, "We would never reject you for who you are, Blake. I mean, we've been fighting against people rejecting us for who we are as faunus for God knows how long. It would be hypocritical of us to hate someone for who they are as a homosexual or whatever."

Blake began to tear up again as she hugged her parents and said, "Thank you... Thank you so much..."

Sun said to her and her family, "Wanna go back to our place?"

"Of course," Ghira replied. "So, you and Blake share an apartment or something?"

"Yes we do," Sun replied. "Your daughter is awesome, by the way." He then realized how awkward that last sentence sounded, and followed by saying, "I mean, yes, she's a great girl- I mean, woman, and I enjoy being with her."

"Eheheh," Ghira replied. "Good." He then turned to a blushing Blake. "I see you made the right choice."

"Dad," Blake said, blushing harder and a bit embarrassed.

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE**_

So, it's been 40 chapters already... Damn...

I honestly only planned to do an adaptation of Backdraft that was to be wrapped up in 4 chapters at the beginning as a tribute to Monty. I never expected it would go this far.

Season 3 will be starting soon, and trust me, you'll be in for a ride next season.

Thank you to all who have made this story possible, and to all who follow it. YOU ROCK!


	41. Season 3: Part 1

_**August 1, 2021**_

"Weiss," yelled Alfred as he and several firefighters stood on the flat roof a 4-story apartment building with heavy fire on the fourth floor at around 12:36 P.M., 28 minutes after they had been dispatched to the fire. "Go with Kush and start cutting up the roof near the right hand street corner. The fire is most intense over there!" He then began cutting into the roof with a chainsaw as smoke began seeping from the cut.

"Got it, Uncle Al." Weiss then walked over with Theresa, both armed with axes, before they both began hacking away at the roof beneath and in front of them at the front right-side corner of the building. "If the smoke starts getting too thick, stop and put your mask on, Tracy."

"You got it," Theresa replied as she continued to hack into the roof, letting out heavy smoke and even some flames. "Should we back off a bit? I think the roof over here's a bit saggy."

"I noticed that, too. Let's move back a little." Weiss and Theresa then backed away a few feet before continuing. A saggy spot in a roof often indicated it was severely weakened by the fire below and was ready to cave in.

Meanwhile, on the smoky third floor, several Vigilant and North Vigilant firefighters had been beaten back by the intense flames on the fourth floor. Even some parts of the ceiling in other apartments on the third floor had caved in, spreading the fire downwards. Ruby, Yang, and Elsa all manned a 2 1/2 hand line on the third floor and had been knocking down the drop-down fire in an apartment. Elsa said to the two half-sisters, "I think this apartment is clear. Overhaul will take care of the rest."

Then, Winter yelled over to them, "Hey! We're gonna go to the fourth floor again!"

"Got it," Yang replied before the group turned around and began to go to the stairs to the fourth floor again. Then, just as they reached the foot of the stairs, their low-air alarms on their SCBAs started to go off. "Fuck..."

"Go back down to the second floor and change out your bottles," Winter told them as her low-air alarm went off as well. "Add me, I guess."

As they went down to the second floor to grab new air bottles, Blake, 5th Lieutenant Dafydd ap Llewelyn, and a Goodwill firefighter went up to take the 2 1/2-inch hand line left by the group. Dafydd told the other 2, "We'll go up and attack the fire while Captain Winter Schnee and those other 3 go change out bottles. Get ready, the fire on the 4th floor is intense."

The 3 then paused on the 3rd floor to put their masks on. Blake took her gloves and helmet off, flattened her cat ears, put her mask on, and connected the low-pressure tube on her mask to her belt-mounted regulator before putting her helmet and gloves back on. She said, "I'll take the front."

The Goodwill firefighter nodded his head and went on air as well, saying, "Looks like you'll be in the back, Lieutenant."

"Of course," Dafydd replied before picking up the hose with Blake and the Goodwill firefighter.

On the ground outside, Captain Kirkridge, who had the day off from work, radioed to all firefighters on the roof, "Vigilant Command to all firefighters on the roof, get off the roof. It's getting too dangerous."

"10-4," Winter radioed back. She then yelled to everyone else on the roof, "Get off the roof! We're going back down!"

Weiss and Theresa both stopped what they were doing and began to walk back to the aerial ladder of Truck 201, which had been extended to the roof for access. Theresa said, "I was wondering when that was gonna happen. The roof began to get really spongy towards the end."

"Exactly, Tracy." Weiss then turned herself around and climbed backwards onto the ladder. "I was about to tell my sister that myself."

* * *

2 and a half hours later, at 3:16 P.M., Truck 201, Rescue 201, and Ambulance 201 all returned from the fire together. In the rec room, Team RWBY discussed the day's events at the bar. Yang said, "So, how's your medic class doing, Weiss?"

"Good," Weiss replied. "I'm almost done. My last class is in a month. So, when are you three taking it?"

"We all agreed to take it in January next year," Ruby replied. She then checked her phone. "In the meantime, that RIT class I'm taking is going well. That'll end the week after your AFP class, Weiss."

"I'm gonna save that for after I complete my AFP," Blake said, with Yang nodding in agreement. Then, she got a phone call from Sun. "Hold up, guys. I gotta take this."

"So," Winter then said to Team RWBY as she opened a bottle of water. "Any word on upcoming Hunting Corps missions?"

"We're gonna be deployed to yet another hotspot of Grimm from the 3rd to the 5th," Ruby replied to Winter. "Apparently, a rural village on Vytal Island had a Grimm infestation occur recently on the edge of the town they're located within, so there's that. It's been really quiet for the military in general as a whole recently, given the whole expansion of Vale killed all of the Grimm in the old Exclusion Zone surrounding the city and now they need construction workers and engineers more than hunters over there."

"You got that right," Winter replied. "They just approved a whole new batch of volunteer fire companies out there in the new areas. They've also renumbered the entire city's street box system so that the numbers don't go in order of district anymore, now that we're gonna have 20 districts."

"Already? Wow. That many people are moving out there already? That's impressive." Yang then yawned. "I barely got any sleep last night."

"Yeah," Ruby replied, annoyed. "I can vouch for that, given what you and George kept doing all night." The rest of the team then laughed. "Do you know how awkward it is when you're trying to go to sleep and your older sister is screaming her boyfriend's name out loud?"

"Says you," Yang replied in a joking manner. "You're banging the king, sis." She then paused. "Yeah, I never thought I'd hear those words come out of my mouth either."

"But I'm not loud as fuck like you are, no pun intended," Ruby retorted. "Nor do I do that stuff when you're home."

Blake said to Weiss, "This conversation got sexual pretty fast."

Weiss replied, "Isn't that almost always the case?"

* * *

_**August 3, 2021**_

Penny spent the day at the firehouse, staying from 8 to 4. She sat in the rec room at around 11:33 A.M., studying several books about the Valeanian fire service to better familiarize herself after having done 2 medical calls since 8. As she did, a paid firefighter cleaned one of the wooden tables in the rec room. Up to that point, the company had done 4 medicals and 1 fire call for a fire alarm activation at an apartment building at 6:22 A.M. from midnight to 11:33 A.M. Later that day, she was scheduled to report to Beacon Academy at 6 P.M. to continue familiarization training.

Then, the pager tones dropped, followed by the siren tones, indicating a fire call was coming in. The voice of the dispatcher on the radio indicated it was for an Echo-response traffic accident involving a car versus a bicycle, followed by said car slamming into a hotel lobby, with the bicyclist laying on the ground, unconscious and not breathing. Goodwill Hose Company was also going.

Penny and the paid firefighter immediately ran out to the apparatus bay. As the paid firefighter ran to the ambulance to grab his gear, Penny ran to her gear locker and started putting her gear on. She thought to herself, _"This cannot be good."_

After she got her gear on, Penny ran to Ambulance 201 along with 2 other volunteers, including Lieutenant Eva Tietz, who were also staying at the station. They boarded the ambulance as it left the station with 5 firefighters. Lieutenant Tietz told Penny in the back of the ambulance, "Probie, you're at Atlesian paramedic, right?"

"That I am," Penny replied. "I have full reciprocity of all of my certifications in fire and EMS in Vale, as well. What do you need?"

"Bring the ALS bag from the back," Eva replied as she put rubber gloves on. "I'll grab the stretcher. That guy on the bike doesn't sound too good."

Then, the ambulance arrived, being the first unit to show up on scene. Penny and Eva came out of the back of the ambulance, with Penny carrying a heavy medical bag carrying advanced life support supplies and Eva pulling the stretcher. The paid lieutenant aboard the ambulance radioed as he got out," Fire Alarm, Ambulance 201's 10-84 at the accident. Start me Situ Mingyu Rescue and Excellence Fire for more ambulances. We got the bicyclist down and in possible cardiac arrest. Uhh, the driver of the car was ejected in the crash, and a passenger is trapped in the car at this time. Also, notify the building inspection office and have them respond here for property damage."

Penny ran over to the bicyclist with Eva and immediately grabbed a pair of scissors to cut off his shirt to stick a scalpel in his chest to begin a bilateral chest decompression. Eva began controlling the bicyclist's bleeding with bandages and stuck an IV in the bicyclist's right arm to begin administering drugs. Penny then placed an oxygen mask over the man's face as well.

As they continued to try and save the bicyclist, Rescue 201 and Engine 202 pulled up. Theresa and Denis, off from school during the summer and riding the rear step of the rescue, jumped off and ran to the compartment of the rescue that carried the hydraulic rescue tools. Another firefighter revved up the motor of the tools as Theresa grabbed the hydraulic spreaders and Denis grabbed the hydraulic cutters.

After 3 other firefighters had put chocks underneath the car to stabilize it, Theresa pressed the spreaders' tip against the jammed-shut right passenger door as 2 Goodwill firefighters placed a tarp over the trapped passenger. She then began to pry open the door as Denis cut away at the hinges with the cutter. Theresa said to the passenger, "You're gonna be out soon. Don't worry."

As they cut the passenger out of the car, Penny and Eva's efforts to revive the bicyclist became less successful. Penny said to Eva, "We're not getting any circulation, Eva."

"Fuck," Eva replied. "We'll have to start hands-on CPR."

Penny immediately placed her hands on the bicyclist's chest as Eva continued to push drugs into him and began performing chest compressions. Penny continued for 4 whole minutes before Eva told her, "He's gone, Penny."

"Ugh," Penny said to herself in defeat as she wiped her forehead, not realizing she had blood on her hands. "We lost him... Fuck..."

Eva then yelled over to the crew of Ambulance 201, "We got a dead one!" They and a police officer immediately grabbed a yellow tarp from the ambulance and walked over to the body to place the tarp over it.

Penny said to herself in sadness and slight anger, "Gott im Himmel..." Then, a police officer offered her a wet wipe for the blood on her forehead and hands. "Thanks..." She then said to herself, "I still can't believe most of this country, me included, does this for free..."

* * *

_**August 6, 2021**_

Blake and Sun sat in their shared apartment around 6 P.M. watching television. Blake had returned from working at the Fire Alarm Office at around 5, while Sun had been at a training session at Beacon from 7 to 3 that day and had returned home at around 4:15. As they watched the news and ate dinner, Blake said to Sun, "Did you hear about Jerry Harrison, that striker for the Vale FC? He's been doping for the past 4 years with both blood AND steroids."

"Oh my God," Sun replied in shock. "Wasn't he like the most popular rookie on your team or something a few years back?"

"Yep," Blake replied in disgust. "He sure is, or was. Can't believe he'd cheat like that." Then, a news report about the player came on. "Speak of the devil, it's Mister Harrison himself. I hope they kick that douchebag out of the club for that."

Then, she heard her pager ring. Since the siren tones didn't play out afterwards, Blake silenced her pager. Sun replied, "You're not going?"

"It's just an EMS call," Blake replied. "Since the ambulance is at the station, I don't go if I'm not there. I only go if it's a second EMS call and we need to call an ambulance from another company, since then we gotta roll the rescue rig as a first response unit."

"Oh yeah," Sun replied. "I forgot about that. Say, you turn that off at night, right?"

"Yeah," Blake replied. "At night, I only go to fire calls, so I just use the siren since we're almost across the street from the station." Then, they both heard the ambulance drive past them. "There they go."

Then, she got a text from Ruby, saying, "yo turn ur pager on fire alarm just put a bunch of companies in the new districts on standby for a 99"

Blake immediately turned her pager back on in time to hear the pager and siren tones of several brand new volunteer fire companies out in the newly-formed District 12, plus ts newly built Fire Patrol stations and its newly appointed Assistant District Chief and District Chief, get put out. As Blake and Sun listened, they realized that the call was for a brush fire that had spread to a structure, and the original fire company put out on the brush fire had requested to be re-dispatched. Sun replied, "That sucks. I bet whoever occupies that place just moved there."

"You can say that again," Blake replied as she opened up a scanner app on her phone and listened in on a feed rebroadcasting District 12's dispatch-to-unit frequency, with unit-to-dispatch traffic mixed in with a mixer, unless the Incident Commander requested the mixer to be turned off for sensitive information. "Let's see how these guys and gals do on what is probably their first actual fire."


	42. Season 3: Part 2

_**August 10, 2021**_

At the Fire Alarm Office, Blake sat and watched the T.V. at around 9 A.M. after taking a 911 call. She was on the phones today. On the T.V. on VBC1 was a morning talk show that had been discussing terrorism by the White Fang in Menagerie, the homeland of the Faunus.

Blake said to herself, "Despicable as always..." She was then startled by the transfer alert coming through, indicating a 911 call had been transferred from the 911 receiving center at the Police Alarm Office to the Fire Alarm Office. Blake immediately picked up an emergency phone and said, "Vale City Fire Department, Dispatcher 875." Immediately, the approximate address of the caller popped up on a computer screen.

"There's screaming coming from the apartment next door to me," said a slightly panicked caller. "They're saying a man is on fire and he's on the ground trying to put himself out."

"Okay, sir, where's your address, what floor are you on, and what's your apartment number?" Blake began typing in the info of the call.

"It's 1775 Market Avenue, my apartment number is 26, I'm on the 5th floor, and the apartment next to me is 28." The man began to panic more. "Oh my God. They just said the rug and couch are on fire now. The fire alarms just activated. I'm getting the hell outta here."

"Sir, stay on the line." Blake began furiously typing away as a board of all the fire alarm systems in the city activated in the background, showing the same address the caller said he was at. "I'll get the fire department out to you right now. Just hold on." Blake then finished her report and sent it electronically to the paging station. She also wrote down the address, box number, and type of call on a small note card and put it on a conveyor belt down to the paging station. "Alright, sir, I just sent the report to the paging station. They're gonna dispatch the fire department right now. Now, is there smoke in the hallway?"

"A lady just came out of the apartment on fire now," yelled the man. "She fell to the floor in the hallway! Oh fuck! She's screaming her head off!" Blake could hear the lady's screams in the background.

"Alright, sir, try to find an exit and get out as soon as you can." Blake wiped her forehead of sweat. "Try to stay calm, sir. What's your name and phone number?"

* * *

_**August 11, 2021**_

After the company meeting's administrative part was over, all of the firefighters who attended put on their gear and gathered outside on the sidewalk and apron for hands-on training. Captain Kirkridge led them, saying, "Today, we're gonna be doing SCBA refamiliarization. Yes, friends, today is the day we will don our air packs and walk around until we bleed them dry. We have 10 air packs for you to use." He then pointed to the air packs. "Put them on and follow me, Captain Winter Schnee, or Lieutenant Egret. Once the first group is done, we will change the bottles out and put the empties near the air cascade system to fill them." As they went over the training, construction was underway for the fire station's addition.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Ren, and Penny were all in the first group of 10 firefighters. They all quickly donned their packs and went on air within a minute. Then, Winter told them, "Alright, the first group will follow me."

As they walked the street and over the neighboring canal, Ruby said to her friends as she checked how much air she had in her pack through a shoulder strap-mounted counter, "By the way, forgot to mention this earlier during the break, but me and Jaune gotta attend officer training from the 16th to the 20th."

"Oh yeah," Weiss replied. "Jaune mentioned that to me earlier. What are you guys doing for that training?"

"Just some review of stuff," Ruby replied. "Along with some combat evolutions at Beacon." She then turned to Yang and said, "By the way, Yang, we gotta go see dad on the 23rd. It's his birthday."

"Of course I remembered that," Yang replied, annoyed at Ruby implying she had forgotten her own father's birthday. "I can't believe Dad's gonna be 48. He and Qrow are almost at the big 5-0!" She and Ruby then laughed. Then, Yang got somber and said after checking her air, "If only the rest of Team STRQ was here to celebrate their birthdays this year, too..." She then thought about Summer's death years before, as well as Raven's recent death in the past year. "It's a damn shame."

Ruby then patted Yang on the back as they rounded a corner, surprising onlookers who were watching the training go on as she said, "It sure is. But, I'm glad at least half of that team's still kicking around. I don't know how, but I guess some people are just born to survive the usually unsurvivable, eh?" Yang and Ruby then laughed.

* * *

_**August 16, 2021**_

Weiss had pulled a long 10-hour shift at the SDC headquarters in Vale from 7 to 5 while trying to fix a computer problem with her father, her sister, and her uncle. Whitley, who by now was a mostly-accepted part of the family, also assisted.

When she got home at 6:22 P.M., she immediately plopped down onto her bed and sighed, extremely tired out by the day. "I never wanna look at another computer screen again after doing that," Weiss said to herself as she closed her eyes and tried to take a nap. "I swear to God, I hope we fixed that bug, or so help me, I will fucking smash our company's mainframe with a Halligan bar." She then drifted into sleep.

Then, at 7:07 P.M., she was interrupted when Vigilant's siren roared to life for a fire-rescue call.

Weiss immediately sprung to her feet and grabbed her pager as she ran out of the apartment. As she ran to the stairs, she turned on her pager to hear the last of the dispatch. She said to herself, "I was hoping we'd get a call later, not now."

Weiss ran into the station within 2 and a half minutes of the call. She hurriedly put on her gear and jumped onto Truck 201, taking the 10th and last seat on the rig. Once she got comfortable, the truck pulled out of the station within 3 and a half minutes of the call. Whitley and Blake had also boarded the truck, with Yang and Ren boarding Rescue 201.

The firefighter in the front seat told everyone in the back, "We got multiple calls reporting an explosion inside the restaurant with flames visible, so pack up." Weiss nodded and began to put on her SCBA before taking off her helmet to put on her mask.

Within 6 minutes of the call, Truck 201 pulled up. Whitley and Blake, who was wearing a pack but not her mask, immediately jumped out to hit the hydrant while Weiss and several other firefighters went on air and jumped out to grab attack lines off the side of the truck.

The scene outside of the restaurant was chaotic. At least 20 walking wounded stood out front, with the interior of the restaurant a huge mess from the explosion. Additionally, thick black smoke poured from the first and second floor, with multiple residents of the apartments above the restaurant hanging out of their windows and screaming for help. Captain Kirkridge, who had arrived first as Car 5, radioed, "Car 5 to Fire Alarm, urgent."

"Car 5, go."

"Strike a Second Alarm for this box," he replied. "We have at least 25 injured and 10 trapped on the floors above."

As Weiss and another firefighter advanced an 1 3/4-inch hand line into the first floor, several Fire Patrolmen climbed ground ladders up to the second floor of the restaurant to begin the salvage process. When Weiss and the other firefighters crawled in, they saw that most of the tables and chairs were either flipped over or had been destroyed. The walls and ceiling were peppered with shrapnel as well. Weiss said to the other firefighter, "Pencil the ceiling to get the heat out!"

The other firefighter replied, "Got it!" He then proceeded to "pencil" the ceiling by firing short bursts at it to reduce the heat and reduce the risk of a flashover. He then said, "Wanna let the other hose team attack the main fire?"

"We'll do it with them," Weiss replied as a team of three firefighters crawled in with a 2 1/2-inch attack line. She then pointed at the main body of fire located in the center of the restaurant and said, "Open up now!" As the other firefighter did, Weiss suddenly felt herself crawling over a dead body. She looked down and shivered in fright, saying to herself, "Oh fuck!" The body was peppered with shrapnel from the explosion, and its face was unrecognizably mutilated.

* * *

Later at the explosion site, around 9:33 P.M., an exhausted Weiss sat on the rear step of Rescue 201, her coat off to the side and her hip boots rolled down. Beside her was Blake, who was also exhausted after having done search and rescue on the upper floors of the building. Blake wiped her eyes and said to Weiss, "So, any rumors on the cause of the explosion yet?"

"They think it's a bomb," Weiss replied as she yawned. "Thing is, it probably isn't the White Fang, though. The guy who owns this place is a faunus, and most of the victims are, too."

"Unfortunately," Blake said in response. "That doesn't mean anything anymore. They've been targeting their own kind ever since the Battle of Beacon failed. You should know this by now, Weiss, really."

"Whatever," Weiss replied. "Regardless of who did it, it's fucking sick. This war of terror attacks needs to stop before something real bad happens." Blake fistbumped Weiss in agreement. Weiss then saw her father and asked him, "Any words on the situation?"

"Well," Hermann told his daughter. "They're currently looking at 5 dead and 34 to the hospital, with a grand total of 4 alarms struck for more ambulances and manpower."

"Yeah, that death toll is too low," Blake replied. "I feel like it's at least 10."

"Oh yeah," Hermann replied. "It's gonna go up eventually. There no way it won't." He then shook his head in disgust. "This whole terrorism thing is getting outta hand on both sides." He then heard his cellphone ring and quickly answered it, turning away from Weiss and Blake.

Whitley then walked over, saying to Weiss, "So, that was... Something."

Weiss sighed and told him, "You can say that again."

Then, Yang joined in as she walked over to the gang, saying, "So, this bullshit happened again. Of course."

* * *

_**August 17, 2021**_

"This attack was a cowardly one," spoke King Delwyn as he addressed a joint session of the three houses of the Valeanian Parliament: The Commons, the Lords, and the Ruling Council. "We have evidence and intelligence suggesting that human supremacists, more specifically of the Authoritarianist kind, committed this attack because the owner of the restaurant, who was sadly killed in the attack, was an outspoken civil rights activist. As your King and Sovereign, I condemn this attack, and urge a full investigation into it. I also urge that the perpetrators be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, as are any terrorists. Whether it is committed by faunus supremacists or human supremacists, these acts are not tolerated in our kingdom, and that will not change this time, or any time in the past, present, or future."

Outside, human supremacists marched outside Parliament, holding signs such as "EQUAL RIGHTS=HUMAN SUBJUGATION" and "KING DELWYN IS A TRAITOR TO HUMANITY!" They openly displayed support for the bombing, disgusting many onlookers. They chanted, "Long Live The Heroes! Down With Halfbreeds!" The crowd was sized at around 2,000.

In total, the attack had killed 13 people, including 8 faunus, and had injured 57.

* * *

At the firehouse, Weiss hung out after attending a fire alarm activation at an apartment building around 1:01 P.M. while doing an 8-hour duty shift from 9 to 5. She watched the news in the rec room with the two paid firefighter-paramedics and another volunteer. She said, "Look at those clowns marching near Parliament. Sad."

"You can say that again," replied the paid lieutenant on duty, who happened to be a dual-trait cat faunus (ears and tail). "It's like they're asking for a White Fang attack or something, if you ask me."

"Oh yeah," replied the other volunteer. "I bet they're planning another attack right now."

"It'll be a while before they respond," Weiss told them. "It takes usually two months at the least to plan out a good-sized attack. I learned that at Beacon Academy during my... I think I took the Counterterrorism class in my junior year, yeah. So yeah, we'll probably see the next one in October, unless, of course, they've already been planning one now before yesterday's bombing, God forbid."

The VNN news anchor then said, "In other news, Menagerian police arrested 5 people alleged to be White Fang members after receiving a tip from an informant that they were stockpiling weapons in a rural town. However, the arrest resulted in tensions between the police and the deeply conservative populace of East Menagerie, who often support the White Fang clandestinely. Over the past year, several incidents in Menagerie have led to attacks on police, the most recent being an ambush at a traffic stop that killed 2 officers in a rural town just 10 miles from the Eastern Coast of Menagerie just 4 days ago."


	43. Season 3: Part 3

_**August 23, 2021**_

Sun asked Blake as she packed her pocket book, "Ready for work?"

"Yup," Blake replied. She wore a Vigilant Fire Company t-shirt and jeans. "You know, it's been a year since I put my bow away for good in the drawer."

"Oh yeah," Sun replied as he cleaned his staff with wood polisher in its collapsed form. "I almost forgot that." He then gave Blake a quick kiss. "See you later, Blake."

Blake smiled and told him, "See you later too, Sun." She then walked out the door of the apartment. The time was 7 A.M.

Meanwhile, Sun sat down and turned on the T.V. He then read the Hunting Corps' monthly request form, a form given out to all hunters that showed basic info about requests from private individuals for their services. _"Hmm... I could take this 2-day mission from the 27th to the 29th," _Sun thought to himself. _"It's a good 3000 Lien."_

* * *

Meanwhile, Ruby had slept over at the Royal Palace with Delwyn. She woke up at 7:35 A.M. and stretched out as her eyes adjusted to the bright morning sun. Delwyn woke up at around the same time, lifting himself up and hugging Ruby, who said, "Last night was pretty fun, Delwyn." She was wearing Delwyn's jacket, some boxers, and nothing else, while Delwyn wore only underwear.

Delwyn laughed and gave Ruby a kiss on her neck, saying, "It sure was, my queen."

Ruby chuckled and replied, "Oh, I see." She then turned to Delwyn and said to him, "Have you ever thought of... Uh... Like, taking this thing further?"

Delwyn blushed and replied, "Well... Uh... I mean, I think... I've considered it, but I want to wait just a little longer. I assume you feel the same."

Ruby nodded as she got up and replied, "Yeah, same here." She then yawned and stretched.

Then, a servant knocked on the door, saying, "Your Highness, are you awake?"

"Yes, I am," Delwyn replied as he also got up and went to his dresser to grab clothes. "What time shall the morning intelligence briefing be, Daniel?"

"At 9," Daniel replied. "It was going to be 8:30, but Minister Howe was running a little late due to his daughter having a baby yesterday." He referred to Nicholas Howe, a member of the Ruling Council and the Minister of War.

"Tell him I send my congratulations," Delwyn replied. "I will be out shortly." He then turned to Ruby as he put dress pants on. "So, what are your plans for the rest of the day, Ruby?"

"Go home, study for more Hunting Corps officer training, relax, maybe catch a few fire calls." Ruby then shrugged before she took off Delwyn's coat and grabbed her own clothes, which were strewn about on the floor. "You don't mind if I get dressed in front of you, right?"

"No," Delwyn replied. "We see each other naked quite a bit, Ruby, and then some. What makes you think I wouldn't like seeing you get changed or something?"

"Just wondering," Ruby replied as she put her bra on. She then smiled. "You know, we have time before the meeting to do something, right?"

"Oh yeah," Delwyn replied as he began thinking of the same thing Ruby was thinking. He then took off his dress pants and socks before Ruby suddenly tackled him to the floor. The two then laughed before Delwyn said, "You just love doing that to me, huh?"

"You bet," Ruby replied before she and Delwyn kissed as he began to undo Ruby's bra. "Ah, yes..."

* * *

"Now that you got the day off," George said to Yang at their apartment. "What are you gonna do?" The time was 8:22 A.M.

"No idea," Yang replied. The recruitment station she worked at had shut down for the day due to a water main break the night before. Firefighters had pumped out 3,223 gallons of water from the place. "I might as well just go to my firehouse and find something to do over there."

George nodded and said, "Alright. I gotta go to work, myself, love." He then kissed Yang. "I'll see ya around 5:45. I love you, Yang."

"I love you, too, George," Yang replied as she smiled. As he walked out, she thought to herself, _"I found a good man. I really did."_

* * *

Jaune and Weiss ate breakfast and read the newspaper together that morning around 8:40 A.M. Weiss asked Jaune as he checked his phone, "Any word from Signal on the full-time teaching gig?"

"Yup," Jaune replied. "I go for my final test on the 26th. After that, I'll be a full-timer."

"Awesome," Weiss joyfully replied. "I know you've been wanting that for a long time. Finally, your dream is coming true, Jaune." She then reached over and gave Jaune a kiss on the cheek. "So, when are you going over to Beacon for today?"

"I gotta be there at 11," Jaune replied. "I'll be covering Peter's class." By now, Team JNR and Team RWBY had mostly referred to their former professors either by their first name or by their Hunting Corps rank. "He's out because his wife was sick all of last night or something."

"Awwww," Weiss replied in sympathy. "That sucks." She then read out from a headline, "Mayor Azula Announces New Public Works Project; "We Will Put Over 10,000 Unemployed To Work" Says Mayor." She then said, "Good for him. John Azula's the best mayor we've had in years."

"You can say that again," Jaune replied. "I heard he's gonna help expand Patch with land reclamation and build a second bridge-tunnel to the island." He then got up and began to walk out, "Well, I gotta go. I love you, Weiss."

"I love you too, Jaune," Weiss replied as she smiled, thinking about him.

* * *

At around 11:30, Qrow and Taiyang visited the quarters of Protection Fire and Engine Company 1, the oldest and largest company in the city. The 226-strong company operated a fleet of 4 engines, a ladder truck, 2 rescues, and 3 ambulances alongside some paid staff that were assigned to their station. They responded to an average of 2,500 fire-rescue calls and 12,000 EMS calls per year. Qrow and Taiyang drove their Captain's cars as Car 88 and Car 87.

They were there to visit Protection's 1st Captain, Justin Juliet, also known as Car 1 on the radio. Justin was 44 years old and was a 32-year-veteran on the company. He also worked as a paid firefighter, with a total of 21 years, and was assigned to Vale City International Airport's Fire Station 1. Before that, he had worked in a foundry. He was out front, with his car parked on the apron. This was his 3rd consecutive years as captain and his 7th total year as captain.

Qrow got out of his car first, saying to Justin, "How's it going, Captain Juliet?" They then shook hands.

"Not bad, Qrow," Justin replied. "So, Signal Fire wants a new engine, right?"

"Yup," Taiyang replied as he got out of his car. "We're looking for something similar to your Engine 101." He then pointed to the engine in question. "It would be perfect. We're gonna sell our old engine to a brand new fire company founded on Patch."

"I got the specs from the factory in my car," Justin told them as he went to the back of his car to grab the plans. "I'll get them for you."

* * *

Also at around 11:30, Blake was manning District 1's console, monitoring the dispatch frequencies. She yawned and drank some water before a unit answered, "Engine 107 to Fire Alarm."

"Engine 107."

"Engine 107 is 10-84 at the accident."

"10-4." She then turned to the other dispatcher next to her and said, "How's that fire in District 3?"

"It's only a Code 99," the other dispatcher replied. "It'll probably be out soon."

"Ambulance 106 to Fire Alarm."

Blake then turned her attention to the radio again, "Go ahead."

"We're arriving at the accident at Box 288."

"10-4." She then said to the other dispatcher. "It was a house, right?"

"Yup," the other dispatcher said. "It's been burning for an hour, but they managed to contain it to only the back of the house."

* * *

Back at PFEC1, Justin retrieved the specs and handed them over to Taiyang, saying, "Here they are. The truck is only 6 months old. It's been doing great for us. I'd highly recommend it."

"Thanks," Taiyang replied. "This engine will do Signal Fire good."

Then, Qrow pointed up to the sky and said to them, "Look at that thing!"

Taiyang and Justin, along with several other PFEC1 volunteers and a few paid firefighters, looked up as they saw a plane fly relatively low to the ground, just over the tops of some of the many skyscrapers in downtown. Taiyang said, "Wow, that plane is pretty low. Oh my God..."

Then, suddenly, it aimed right at the 165-story Union Square Center, Building 1. The steel-faced building was one of a set of triplets that had been completed in 2017 after 6 long years of construction. They had been designed to have five 33-story sections that progressively got smaller as they reached the top before being topped off by a 275-foot spire for a total height of 3,022 feet. All three were linked by skybridges at the 34th, 65th, and 100th floors arranged in a triangular pattern. They were a symbol of Valeanian success, and their completion spurred development of a taller building 8 blocks away that would top out at 172 stories with a 325-foot spire for a total height of 3,255 feet that was to be complete by 2024, after 5 years of construction. Immediately, everyone watching realized what the plane was about to do.

The plane slammed right into Building 1's northern face between floors 106 and 108, sparking a massive explosion that sent shockwaves throughout the crowded city streets below.

Qrow screamed, "Holy fuck! That did NOT just happen!" He then ran to his car to radio dispatch as other firefighters cursed and screamed in horror.

* * *

"Car 88 to Fire Alarm."

Blake immediately answered. "Car 88."

"We just had a plane crash into the upper floors of Union Square Center 1! Strike the box! Strike the box! Strike the box!"

"10-4. Car 88, do you want me to send a full first alarm to Box 134?" Blake was shocked, but not shaken.

"You got it, Blake! Start a Code 99! Get me units here ASAP!" Qrow, in his haste, had called Blake by her name over the radio.

"10-4." Blake then transmitted three short beeps over the radio. "Fire Alarm to all units in District 1, a Code 99 has been declared at Box 134 for a reported plane crash into the building." Blake then turned her head away and yelled out to the paging station, "FULL FIRST ALARM, BOX 134!"

Another dispatcher immediately turned on all of the television sets in the fire alarm office and turned them to VNN so that once they broke the news, they could get a live visual feed of the disaster unfolding.

* * *

Qrow and Taiyang pulled up to the front entrance of Building 1 as people streamed out of the ground lobby of the tower. By now, it had been 2 and a half minutes since the crash had occurred. Qrow got out of his car and walked to the back to grab his gear. As he put his hip boots, long coat, and helmet on, he looked up and said, "Holy shit, this is the big one..."

Taiyang, after putting his gear on, said to Qrow, "I can already tell this will be bad. This will be very, VERY bad." As they got ready, they heard both the station sirens of the first 5 companies that were dispatched, plus the vehicle sirens of several police and fire vehicles, including Car 1 and Engine 101.

When Car 1 pulled up, Justin got out and grabbed his gear from the back as well. A passerby yelled to them, "My wife is up on the 115th floor! Can you get her?!"

Qrow yelled back, "We will, sir! We will! We're doing the best we can!" He then turned to Taiyang and said, "I sure hope that plane didn't sever all of the stairwells beyond the impact point." As they continued to talk, a throng of people swarmed out of Building 1 while people in Buildings 2 and 3 watched with anticipation and worry.

* * *

At the Vigilant Fire Company firehouse, Weiss was watching VNN in the rec room alone. At the time, a commercial was playing for a tech company. Then, VNN's breaking news stinger interrupted the commercial. Weiss said, "Huh?"

Then, a live feed of the burning USC Building 1 was shown as an announcer said, "This just in, we have reports that a plane has crashed into Union Square Centre Building 1, as shown on this live feed on your screen. This is obviously a very disturbing live shot..."

Weiss screamed, "Holy fuck! A plane just crashed into the USC!" She then ran out of the rec room to tell the 2 paid firefighters and several volunteers who were hanging around in the apparatus bay. "Guys! A plane crashed into the USC in District 1!"

"I just got it on my phone with a scanner app," a volunteer said. "It doesn't sound good. Say, isn't that dispatcher Blake?"

"Oh yeah," said Theresa, who was at the station with Denis. "It's gotta be Blake."

Weiss said to herself, "It probably won't be too long before we get toned out to go down there, guys."

* * *

In Building 1's lobby, Qrow, Taiyang, Justin, and a few other firefighters set up a command post in the northwest corner of the lobby using several tables and a map of the 10-building complex. They also brought with them 6 portable radios and a sign reading "FIRE COMMAND POST" to help identify their spot. As they set up some chairs, District 1's Assistant Chief walked in with his driver and said, "You got the post set up?"

"We're almost finished, chief," Qrow told him as he unfolded a chair. "The police are setting their command post up in the northeast corner, just for your information."

"Alright, good," he replied. He then radioed, "Assistant District 2 to Fire Alarm."

Blake answered, "Assistant District 1, go."

"Strike a second alarm for Box 134 and notify the Admin Chiefs. Also, have all non-command units silence their radios when calling en route or arriving, K."

"10-4." Then, three beeps were transmitted over the radio. "Fire Alarm to all units responding to Box 134, a second alarm has been transmitted per the orders of Assistant District 1. Also, attention all units, silence your radios when calling en route or arriving with the exception of command units."

As they continued to ready the command post, a group of 8 firefighters, armed with 2 hand lines and some truck company equipment, climbed into an elevator. The elevators worked up to the 99th floor. For the next 5 floors, they would have to walk up. They would be the first line of attack against the raging fire, which had engulfed floors 104 through 111, for now.

August 23, 2021 would prove to be the VCFD's finest hour. But it would also prove to be their darkest hour, too.


	44. Season 3: Part 4

It was now 11:41 A.M., 9 minutes after the plane had crashed into Building 1. Qrow and Taiyang were monitoring fireground traffic from within the building. As Taiyang wrote down a list of fire companies and paid stations that were on the box, Qrow told him, "You're gonna think I'm crazy, but I think this is a terrorist attack."

Taiyang looked up at him and asked him in bewilderment, "What do you mean, "terrorist attack?""

"That plane looked like it was aiming right at the building on a clear day with no fog or clouds," Qrow replied back. "There's no way it was an accident, Tai. Either somebody flew that plane into the building from the cockpit, or they hacked into it from the ground."

"That sounds crazy," Taiyang told him. "I hope it wasn't terrorism."

Then, Justin told them, "They just struck a simultaneous 3rd and 4th alarm! Tai, I think your daughters' company is going on the 4th alarm since we got 2 companies out of service handling a traffic accident."

Qrow said to himself, "Oh God..."

Taiyang said to Qrow, "I hope Ruby and Yang are prepared for this."

* * *

At the Vigilant firehouse, 12 volunteers and both of the paid firefighter-paramedics continued to watch the disaster unfold. Ruby, Ren, Weiss, and Yang all watched together. Ruby said to Yang and Weiss, "Won't be long before we get called out to go over there." Ren was on the phone with Nora.

"Yup," Yang replied. "Won't be long before they call George's company, too."

Then, a volunteer said, "I just got a text message saying we're on the 4th alarm. They're striking it right now!"

Immediately, Hermann, who was also at the firehouse with Winter and Alfred, told everyone, "Alright, let's go. Get your gear on and cram into whatever space you can find on a rig." As they left, they could hear all of the various tones play out over the radio.

Ruby quickly put her gear on and ran over to the ambulance, the first rig that would leave. She stepped into the back, with Yang and Ren trailing behind her. Weiss got a seat in the back of the front cab. As the bay doors opened, Vigilant's pager and siren tones finally went off in the long dispatch. By then, several firefighters who had been watching the disaster at home ran into the station, having already gotten the text message.

Now packed with 10 people, Ambulance 201 pulled out first. It was trailed immediately by Car 5. It had now been 12 minutes since the plane had crashed. It would take 20-25 minutes for the ambulance to show up on scene.

* * *

At the fire alarm office, the supervisor suddenly came into the room and said, "Alright, any dispatchers who are part of a fire company that has been dispatched to the scene can leave to go to the call."

Blake immediately turned to her fellow dispatcher and told her, "I am not missing this. Take over for me, please."

"Gladly," replied the other dispatcher as Blake got up and began to leave, grabbing her things from her desk.

Blake said to the supervisor, "I'll see you later, Dan."

He replied as several other dispatchers got up to leave, "Be safe down there, Belladonna."

Blake then thought to herself, _"I'll take a taxi to the firehouse, pick up my gear, and then take another taxi to the scene. I wonder if the rest of Team RWBY is going down there..."_

* * *

It was now 15 minutes in. Qrow and Taiyang had decided to step outside to take a smoke break. As Qrow lit up Taiyang's cigarette, he said to him, "Yep, they're definitely coming."

"Of course," Taiyang replied. "If I was them, I wouldn't wanna miss this call for the world." He then puffed out some smoke.

Suddenly, several people on the street screamed in horror and pointed upwards towards Building 3. Qrow looked up and said, "God damn it, I was right!"

Everyone on the street could only watch helplessly as a second plane flew right into Building 3, striking floors 122 through 126, causing a massive explosion that sent debris flying into the air and to the ground. Everyone on the street stared in absolute shock.

Taiyang said to Qrow as they both looked up, "Remind me to never doubt you when it comes to terrorism again, Qrow."

"I told you, it was terrorism." Qrow then sighed and wiped his face. "10 bucks says the White Fang did this."

"I'll buy it," replied Taiyang. "Given that you were right about your first prediction." On the radio, District 1's chief frantically asked for a 5th alarm to be dispatched.

* * *

"This is bad, very bad." Delwyn was alarmed and mildly panicking as he and his Royal Cabinet met in the situation room of the Royal Palace. He then turned to his advisors. "We just watched hundreds of people die. I need to make a statement to the Valeanian people." The room was filled with 10 T.V. sets, all tuned in to various news channels from around Remnant that were covering the disaster.

The Minister of War, MP Nicholas Howe (Ruling Council), told him, "I recommend you hold off, your Highness."

"Look, Nick, you're awesome, I deeply respect you, and you often give very intelligent advice, but how about no?" Delwyn was adamantly opposed. Though he officially was supposed to call members of the Cabinet by their titles, they all often called themselves by their first names during briefings. "My people need me. I don't want to just watch as this disas- No, as this ATTACK happens to my country and say nothing until after the fact. I am the King of the Valeanians, after all. I am the ONLY popular monarch by title in Remnant, and I take a lot of pride in that, and my father and our ancestors took a lot of pride in that, and my children will, too."

"Your Highness," the Minister of the Home Department, MP Rachael Flynn (Commons), replied, startled. "I see you are passionate, but-"

"No buts," Delwyn replied, his tone very serious. "I am going to write a short address to my people by myself, and I want it televised. I will advise you all when I am ready. Now, let's get back to work." He then took out a piece of paper and began jotting down a short speech as his advisors began to prepare for his address.

* * *

Penny had just ran into the station, having ran late due to some prior commitments. Instead of grabbing her own gear, she only grabbed her mask before climbing on top of Rescue 201's hose bed and pulling a pair of spare hip boots, a spare coat, and a spare helmet from the rescue's side gear rack alongside several other firefighters who had climbed onto the hose bed.

As the rescue got ready, a firefighter on the back step yelled up, "Duck! Don't hit the ceiling!" Immediately, all 6 firefighters on the rescue ducked and laid down on the hose bed as it pulled out of the station. As it turned out onto the street, everyone got up on their knees and held onto each other as they haphazardly put spare gear on, Penny included.

Penny held onto another firefighter as she said, "This would never be allowed in Atlas!" She then pulled up her hip boots and put on her coat.

"Well, this is Vale," the other firefighter replied. "And we do it our way."

"A second plane hit Building 3," said another firefighter on the hosebed. "This ain't no accident!"

"Oh shit," Penny replied. "This isn't good..." She then zipped her coat up and put a spare helmet on, completing her gear ensemble. "You know, this is actually kinda fun, riding on the hosebed or on the rear step."

"Yeah, except in the winter. Then it sucks ass because you're freezing your ass off while the truck's doing 45 or 50 down a heavily-salted road." The other firefighter then took his phone out and took a picture of Penny and another firefighter. "This action shot will make a good addition to the end-of-the-year video."

"You bet," Penny replied. She then noticed several people that were on the street, filming them go by. She waved at them and smiled, trying to momentarily forget the tragedy unfolding in Downtown Vale.

* * *

24 minutes in.

By now, a 6th and 7th alarms had been simultaneously dispatched at the 19 minute-mark. All of Remnant watched as the disaster unfolded.

At the disaster site, the Commissioner of the Fire Department, a man named William Amaranth, a 70-year-old with 50 years of experience as a paid firefighter, including 8 years as the department chief and 5 as the department commissioner, arrived on scene. Qrow and Taiyang immediately saluted him before he said, "At ease, gentlemen, at ease." He had personally called Fire Alarm on his phone just 5 minutes in after seeing it on T.V. and told them he was going down to Union Square Centre.

Taiyang said to Commissioner Amaranth, "Sir, me and my brother-in-law, Captain Qrow Branwen, called this incident in first with Captain Justin Juliet."

"I see," the commissioner replied. "Where is Captain Juliet?"

"Right here," Justin replied as he walked over with District 1's chief and the 1st Assistant Chief of the Fire Department. "Where's Chief Burke?" He referred to Department Chief Paul Burke, who had succeeded William as the Department Chief. He was 58 years old and was a member of a volunteer fire company in District 3. He also worked as a paid firefighter, with a total of 46 years on the volunteer side and 36 years on the paid side.

"He's on his way, Captain," replied Commissioner Amaranth. "Now, I need to speak with the 1st Assistant Chief for a second. By the way, the Police Commissioner is on his way, too." He then walked away with the 1st Assistant Chief.

"By the way," Justin said to Qrow and Taiyang. "Wanna go up to the 99th floor sky lobby? They need help with staging."

"Sure," Qrow replied. "Hell, if they need us, we can throw packs on and go fight the fire." The three of them then laughed.

Then, their laughter stopped after a junior firefighter from Good Intent Hook and Ladder Company 3 pointed to the sky and yelled, "Are you fucking kidding me?! Not again!" Qrow, Justin, and Taiyang all looked up and saw that a 3rd plane was now heading towards Building 2.

"Holy FUCK," Qrow replied loudly as the third plane hit Building 2 between floors 104 and 107, sending another shockwave and more debris to the ground and stunning onlookers, police officers, and firefighters alike. "Oh my God!"

"We better get to the 99th floor in Building 1 soon," Taiyang said. "I'd prefer not to see that happen again from the ground if another plane is coming."

* * *

In the situation room, Delwyn had just finished his short initial address when the third plane hit Building 2. He said to himself, "Now there's no doubt about it. This is indeed a terrorist attack, ladies and gentlemen. Do we have the Hunting Corps calling back people to help with guarding the city's walls? These kind of things tend to attract Grimm, after all."

"I already got that taken care of," Nicholas Howe replied. "The Royal Chiefs of Staff were given the callback notice 5 minutes ago. They tell me they can scramble up to 20 fighters and get 500 more hunters plus 3,500 soldiers to guard the city within the next hour. All airspace over Vale City has been closed with the exception of military, government, and public safety aircraft. All flights in and out of Vale City have been cancelled."

"Good, good." He then sighed. "Now, before I give the address, I need to call someone. Excuse me." He then left the situation room and closed the door behind him as he dialed Ruby's number.

Ruby, still on the ambulance, immediately looked at her phone and answered upon seeing that it was Delwyn. She said, "Hello?"

"Ruby, you're going down there, right?"

"Yes, Delly, I am."

"Whatever you do, be careful, Ruby, please." Delwyn was deeply concerned. "Ruby, you're my whole life at this point. I don't know what I'd do with myself if you got hurt... Or worse. Promise me you'll call when you get the chance, my love."

"I will," Ruby replied. "Delwyn, if anything happens, remember that I love you with all of my heart, and that will never change." She then paused. "Well, I better let you go. I bet the palace is going nuts right now."

"Oh, you bet. I gotta deliver an address to the nation."

"Got it. I love you, my King."

"I love you, Ruby Rose." They then both hung up, thinking about each other as they prepared for the events to come that day.

Of course, this day would find a way to get worse soon enough.


	45. Season 3: Part 5

33 minutes in.

"Good afternoon, my fellow Valeanians," said Delwyn as he addressed the nation from the Royal Palace. "Today, we've had a national tragedy. Three airplanes have crashed into the Union Square Centre in an apparent terrorist attack on our kingdom. I have spoken with the Mayor of Vale City, the Earl of Vale Manor, and my Royal Cabinet, and I have ordered that the full resources of the royal government go to help the victims and their families. Additionally, I have also tasked them with finding out who committed this cowardly attack on our kingdom. Terrorism anywhere in Remnant will not be tolerated, regardless of whom the perpetrator is, especially when it goes after innocent civilians."

Suddenly, a guard interrupted him with important news. The guard walked up to him and whispered into his ear, "A fourth plane just struck the Apamea Central Bank building 3 minutes ago." Delwyn's eyes widened with shock.

"I see," Delwyn said before turning back to the camera. "It has come to my attention that a fourth plane has struck the Apamea Central Bank building. This... This is shocking news to all of us... Vale is truly under attack. I will immediately direct the resources of the royal government to also assist the city of Apamea due to this shocking revelation. As I have stated before, terrorist attacks will not be tolerated. Thank you, and God bless Vale." He then ended his speech and walked off the podium to go back to the situation room to receive a briefing on the Apamea attack.

The Apamea Central Bank was the second largest bank in Vale, and the 5th largest in Remnant. Its headquarters had been built in its home city of Apamea, the second largest city in Vale and one of only 7 cities in Vale to have a fully-paid fire department, in 1944. It was 30 stories tall and 355 feet high. The plane had nose-dived from the sky and slammed into the right side of the building. It exploded in a fireball, which caused the building to partially collapse inward, destroying most of the building's right side. As in Vale, the Apamea Fire Department immediately responded to the scene, most having already watched the beginning of the attacks in Vale.

* * *

36 minutes in.

Ambulance 201 arrived at the USC, pulling up at the staging area just a block away. At the same time they did, a 10th alarm was struck. By now, 86 companies and paid stations, 20 fire patrol stations, 5 district chiefs, and 5 assistant district chiefs had been dispatched to the scene. Additionally, all administrative chiefs were either en route or were on scene. Additionally, firefighters were just beginning to do an attack on the massive fires in Building 1 above its impact zone.

A fire police officer (a member of a volunteer fire company who handles traffic control, usually a much older member) said to Hermann, sitting in the officer's seat, "Ambulance 201, correct?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"You're doing lobby control in Building 1," the fire police officer replied as he checked off Ambulance 201 on a clipboard.

All 10 people aboard the ambulance then got out. Ruby and Yang pulled the stretcher out and brought it with them, carrying EMS equipment in several jump bags on it.

Eventually, they reached the lobby of Building 1. As they did, a firefighter from another company came along, carrying a badly-burned young woman in his arms. She had apparently been found trying to walk down from the impact zone and had been carried down by several firefighters in one of the elevators. She had burns all along the right side of her body. He frantically said, "We need her to get into your stretcher now!"

Ruby said, "Got it." She and Yang immediately took the EMS bags off as the other firefighter laid the woman down on the stretcher. Ruby then yelled out, "We need an AFP over here! We got a burn patient!"

A paid firefighter-paramedic immediately rushed over with an ALS bag. He said, "Me and the other guy will take care of this. What company are you from?"

"Vigilant," Yang replied. "We're from Ambulance 201."

Hermann immediately spotted them and ran over, saying, "I'll get a guy from the truck to drive the ambulance down." He then saw the woman's burns and said to himself, "Oh my God..." He then radioed over District 2's Operations Channel 1, "Ambulance 201 Officer to Truck 201, upon your arrival, send a driver to Ambulance 201. We need to do a transport for a burn patient."

"10-4," replied Winter, the officer on the truck. "We'll send Lieutenant Key to drive it."

* * *

50 minutes in. By now, the 11th and 12th alarms had been called, bringing the number of companies and stations dispatched to 92, the number of fire patrol stations dispatched to 24, the number of district chiefs dispatched to 7, and the number of assistant district chiefs dispatched to 7. Additionally, 7 minutes before, reports had come in that a 5th plane had struck the dorms of Haven Academy in Mistral. As a result, around the 50-minute-mark, Delwyn ordered all plane traffic, with the exception of the military, the government, public safety, and the news media to be grounded across all of Vale He also immediately phoned Mistral's king and vowed to extend support to them.

George and Yang had just met up a few minutes earlier. Now, they were manning the elevators together, sending firefighters up and down. Right after sending a crew of 5 firefighters and a stretcher up, George said to Yang, standing next to him, "Today's been a crazy day, huh?"

"You can say that again," replied Yang just as an elevator came down. The doors immediately opened with 3 firefighters pulling 2 stretchers, both carrying severely injured office workers. George and Yang both looked away, not wanting to lose their lunches. "Ugh... That's awful..."

Then, they noticed several people outside were pointing up at the sky in horror. George said, "What are they doing out there?" Suddenly, they both found out why, much to their horror.

A body fell to the ground, hitting it with a thud and barely missing 2 police officers standing outside, horrifying everyone who had just witnessed it. Penny, who was standing just outside the doors, which had been splattered with the man's blood, screamed in horror. He had managed to jump out far enough to hit the ground rather than one of the decks of the building.

Yang said, "Holy shit... People are already jumping..." She had an expression of terror on her face. "It must be hell up there..."

Ruby, walking over to them, said to Yang and George in shock, "Did you see that?! Did you fucking see that?! Please tell me that was just my imagination!"

"It wasn't," George replied, telling the brutal truth. "That really happened..."

"Ruby," Winter said as she also walked over with Weiss and Eva Tietz. "Me, Weiss, and Lieutenant Tietz are heading up to the impact zone. Wanna come with us?" She carried a spare air pack for Ruby to use. "Captain Kirkridge and a few other guys are already going up there with spare bottles for us and to assist with the 99th floor staging area."

Ruby sighed and said, "It beats being down here and watching people kill themselves by jumping." She then grabbed the pack and put it on, pulling the straps tight. She then turned to Yang and said, "I'll be back." The 4 of them then boarded an open elevator with a paid deputy chief and a volunteer fire captain who had already boarded. Yang then pressed the firefighter operations button that closed the doors and sent them up.

George said, "She'll be fine."

"I hope so," Yang replied, still worried.

* * *

60 minutes in.

Ruby, Weiss, Winter, and Eva had just arrived on the 99th floor. On the eastern end was a crowded triage area, while on the western end was a staging area packed with firefighters, in addition to the 12 rapid intervention teams that had been set up.

Hermann beckoned them over to staging, saying, "Over here! We got an assignment for you from Captain Kirkridge!"

Winter said to her father, "I brought Weiss, Ruby, and Eva with me."

"Good," Hermann replied. "We need you four to relieve a crew on the 105th floor that was doing an attack on the fire." He then showed them a clipboard map that showed how they would get there. "Follow the path on this map to the hand line. Stay safe, and good luck."

Winter replied, "Got it." She then turned to the gang. "We're going to the 105th floor." She then led them to the stairs, located towards the center of the 99th floor.

As they climbed the stairs to get to the 105th floor, they passed by numerous shoes and high heels that had been left behind by workers that were fleeing the attack. The stairwell they were in was the only stairwell that had not been severed by the impact of the crash in Building 1.

When they reached the 102nd floor, Winter stopped them and said, "Go on air now." Ruby nodded and took her helmet and gloves off to put her mask on. She then put her helmet and gloves back on before continuing up the stairs. As they passed by the doors to the 102nd, 103rd, and 104th floors, they felt the heat and smoke drastically increase, and they also noticed the many lengths of hose that were connected to standpipes in the stairwell.

Once they eventually got to the 105th floor, they found its doors to be open. 2 hand lines were stretched into it as well. Eva said, "Which one is it?"

Then, a group of firefighters exited the floor and into the stairwell. Their leader, a captain, said to Winter, "It's that one." He pointed to a hand line that extended to the right. "Follow that one."

"Got it," Winter replied. She then motioned her hand to call up the gang to follow her. They then entered the office space of the 107th floor.

As they made their way to the end of the hand line, they could barely see due to the thick smoke. They could see some small debris, most likely from the plane, that was scattered all over the floor. Ruby also noticed the outline of a body in an empty office they passed by it. She thought to herself, _"They're probably not from the plane."_

Eventually, the smoke got so bad they had to crawl on their knees for a short distance until they finally reached the end of the 2 1/2-inch hand line. Winter said, "Ruby, go get the front end. The rest of us will be behind you."

Ruby gave her a thumbs up and moved her way to the front. Once she did, she opened up the bale of the nozzle and fired water onto the ceiling to cool it down before they made their way any further. Then, they advanced.

It did not take long for them to encounter fire. As soon as they found a roaring fire towards the northern end of the 105th floor's office space, Ruby opened up on it, darkening it down and producing even more blinding smoke. By now, she was unable to see even her hands as they operated the nozzle. Even so, they pushed forwards even more, attacking the fire further.

Then, they suddenly reached the edge of the building as they began to see light. Ruby said, "Holy shit, did we just reach the hole in the building, Captain Schnee?"

"I think we did," Winter replied. "Weiss, do you see this?"

"Yeah, I do." Weiss was amazed they had made it that far. "We still got 12 minutes of air left."

"That's more than enough to get back out," Winter replied as she stood up. "Follow me."

The 4 of them then made their way to the edge of the building, where the smoke was channeling out. On the way, they had seen larger pieces of plane debris scattered on the floor. As they looked out of the hole made by the plane, Ruby said, "Holy shit..."

"Alright, let's turn back," Winter said. They all then turned around and began making their way back to the stairwell, having attacked the fire. As they went along their way, they moved faster than before so they could have enough air for the way down.

Eventually, they made their way to the stairwell with 3 minutes of air to spare. Eva said, "We should really get going."

"Yeah," Winter replied. They all then began running down the stairs as their air time ticked away. "I'm amazed we didn't suck down more air up there."

Ruby asked Winter, "You got a relief crew coming, right?"

"Yeah," Winter replied. "We're all set."

Eventually, when they got to the 103rd floor, Winter momotioned for them to stop. She then began taking her mask off. Ruby, Weiss, and Eva followed. Once that was done, they continued on their way. Ruby and Weiss coughed a few times due to the smoke from above. "We are totally drained of air," Weiss said to Ruby. "I bet my sister will make us go back down and bring our bottles to the refilling station they have set up on the ground."

By now, it had been 89 minutes. 72 minutes in, Commissioner Amaranth decided to order a general alarm to be struck. Fire Alarm immediately transmitted the all-call pager tones and the all-call siren tones, calling every volunteer fire company and paid fire station to the scene. Additionally, thousands of soldiers descended upon Vale to both protect it from any Grimm attacks along the new city walls and to help cover the fire department with military firefighters. So far, there had only been a small uptick in Grimm activity, a miracle credited to the clearance and redevelopment of the old exclusion zone around Vale City that had originally made up the rest of Vale County. This was in sharp contrast to the Battle of Beacon 6 years earlier, where the Grimm in the Exclusion Zone managed to breach the old city walls due to sheer numbers.

August 23 was already a bad day for Remnant. However, one should always be prepared for an already bad event event to get worse.


	46. Season 3: Part 6

115 minutes in.

Team RWBY, Ren, George, and Penny discussed amongst themselves in the lobby after assisting with expanding the triage area in the ground floor lobby of Building 1. Blake said, "It was fucking chaos in the Fire Alarm Office when I was there."

Yang asked her, "You took Uncle Qrow's call in, right?"

"Yeah," Blake replied as she looked and saw yet another stream of injured people file out of the triage area. "They're probably gonna be blowing up my phone asking for interviews later once this is all over."

"This is getting worse and worse," Penny said to the gang. "Did you guys hear the most recent reports from up there? They're saying the floors in the impact zone are sagging really bad."

"No shit," Weiss replied. "The heat from the fire is probably weakening the steel so much the trusses are sagging." Realizing that she just implied a potential collapse, which could cause panic, she followed up with, "I mean, I don't think it will cause a collapse, but we shouldn't get complacent."

Ren said to the gang after getting off the phone with Nora, "She's worried sick for all of us. Leona has no idea what's going on, obviously." He then saw a bunch of tired-out firefighters emerge from the elevators. "They must have done a few trips into the impact zone."

"You got that right," Ruby said. "I wonder if I'll go up again."

"Maybe," George replied to Ruby. "There's still people trapped on the upper floors and on the observation deck, apparently. They managed to helicopter like 70 people off the observation deck before the heavy smoke from the fire forced the helicopters to back off."

Then, they all again heard the loud thumping noise of a falling body on the street. "And people are still jumping," Weiss said in disgust. "Jesus..."

"I can only imagine what the scene is like in the Fire Alarm Office right now," Blake said. "It must still be absolute chaos."

"Guys," said a saddened Qrow as he walked over to them. "I got some bad news about Haven and Apamea."

Ruby asked him, "What happened, Uncle Qrow?"

"The entire right wing of the Apamea Central Bank collapsed a few minutes ago while firefighters were still inside," Qrow said with a heavy heart. "The same happened to the dorms at Haven just before then, too. They're estimating about 80 to 100 guys were inside both when it came down." The entire gang looked at him in complete shock as he showed them clips of the events that had just happened on his phone.

Weiss looked at him in shock and said, "You... You can't be serious? There's never been a single incident that has killed more than 50 firefighters in all of Remnant's history. Not even large wildfires have killed that many. Oh my God..."

"If it happened at Haven," Yang said as she realized the true horror of the situation. "Oh my God... I bet half of the firefighters in those dorms were students at that academy... And Sanctum's next door, too, and they got their own student and teacher-based volunteer fire department, too... Jesus Christ, there must have been a lot of kids in there."

* * *

140 minutes in.

The Chieftain of Menagerie, Avidor Sarkin, had just gotten off the phone with Delwyn just before delivering a speech in regards to the attacks. He had been told some new intelligence on who was behind the attacks. In front of his residence in its capital, Semzona, he delivered the speech in Fanusian, the native language of the original faunus that resided in Menagerie hundreds of years ago.

Translated, it began, "Good afternoon, my fellow Menagerians. Today, August 23, 2021, terrorists have attacked the Union Square Centre in the City of Vale within the Kingdom of Vale, the Apamea Central Bank Building in the City of Apamea within the Kingdom of Vale, and Haven Academy in the Kingdom of Mistral. These terrible attacks have led to panic, destruction, and great loss. Now, you may ask yourself why I am dedicating this time to a speech in regards to a foreign event. Well, I just finished a conversation with King Delwyn IV of Vale in regards to some new intelligence both our government and Vale's government has uncovered. This intelligence shows, so far, at least, that the origins of this attack are much closer to our home than we think." He then sighed. "My fellow Menagerians, the White Fang is behind this attack. We have intercepted communications between high-ranks within the White Fang that have indicated that members of the White Fang managed to hack into the computer systems of the 5 airplanes involved in the attack and control them from the ground, rendering their pilots and passengers helpless and at the whim of these terrorists."

He then sighed and thought to himself, _"What if there are more attacks?"_

"I strongly condemn this White Fang attack," he continued. "Words cannot accurately describe my anger and sorrow. This is not just an attack on Vale or Mistral or humanity. This is an attack on all of Remnant's people, human and faunus alike. This is yet another reminder that the White Fang does not have the faunus' true best interests at heart. I will do everything in my government's power to hunt down the White Fang further in our homeland so that we can ensure, or at the very least, try to ensure, that this never happens again. Thank you, and God Bless Menagerie."

Unfortunately for him, the attacks would soon hit even closer to home.

* * *

Right after the Chieftain's speech ended, 7 men and 3 women pulled up in front of Semzona's Central Terminal, the largest railway station in Menagerie, in an unmarked van. Despite the attacks in Vale and Mistral, it was still jam-packed with travellers going to and coming from trains. The time was 1:25 P.M.

The group waited in the van as one of then communicated over a cellphone to a group of 2 women at a popular restaurant halfway across the city that was often frequented by foreigners and tourists. Once the phone conversation was finished, the man in the van hung up.

The 2 women at the restaurant suddenly got up from their seats as everyone watched the attacks in Vale and Mistral continue to unfold on several T.V. screens in the packed restaurant. They then drew 14-round semi auto pistols from their pocketbooks and quickly opened fire on the patrons and waitstaff.

For about 45 seconds, they emptied their magazines into the people at the restaurant as everyone tried to flee, leaving their drinks and meals on their tables and on the bar. As one young child, a human, tried to jump over a fence separating the outside eating area from the sidewalk, one of the shooters struck the child in the head with a shot from her pistol, instantly killing them. She did so without even flinching, her hate for humanity so strong.

Then, as soon as it started, it was over. They jumped the fence and onto their motorbike, fleeing the scene, leaving behind 7 dead and 10 injured.

Meanwhile, at the city's seaport, 2 men had been driving am explosive-filled motorboat around, waiting for the OK signal from the van. Once they got it through a phone call, the man driving the boat revved up the engine and aimed straight for a Menagerian Navy frigate docked in the seaport. The MNS Kuo Kuana was being refueled in the port, and many of its sailors were still on the ship.

Then, the motorboat crashed into the side of the ship, resulting in a massive explosion that tore a huge hole in the side of the ship and rocked the ship severely. Instantly, both of the men on the boat were killed, along with 23 sailors. As other sailors frantically grabbed fire hoses to try and put out the resulting fire from the explosion, others rushed to the lower decks with stretchers to prepare for the wounded.

At 1:30 P.M., the 10 terrorists in the van jumped out carrying various weapons. One man, armed with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, aimed it at the front doors of the train station and fired once he made sure nobody was behind him due to the backblast, producing an explosion that killed several people and causing many others to flee. Immediately afterwards, the rest of the group opened fire with assault rifles as the RPG man dropped the RPG and grabbed another assault rifle from the van. Once they all emptied their first magazines, they reloaded and stormed into the train station.

A police officer outside ran over and aimed at the group, firing off a single shot before 2 of the women turned around and shot him multiple times, killing him.

Once the gang made their way to the main ticket hall of the train station, they opened fire on more fleeing civilians as well as several police officers that tried to fight back but were outgunned. They all then jumped into a circular ticket/police booth in the center of the large hall, which was empty due to the workers and police officers fleeing it, and hid, grabbing a few dropped guns and ammo as well as some spare guns and ammo from under the desk. They prepared for the not only inevitable, but also imminent, police assault on them, waiting for them to open fire so they could reply in kind. So far, they had managed to rack up a kill count of 34 civilians and 6 police officers.

In another part of the city, the 2 women on the motorbike stopped in front of the Valeanian Embassy, much to the confusion and worry of 3 Valeanian Army soldiers guarding it. One of them asked them, "State your reason for stopping here now!"

"This is it," the lead woman replied before she drew her reloaded pistol and gunned down all 3 soldiers with precision before they had a chance to react in kind. She then said, "Glory to faunuskind!" Then, the other woman threw a homemade sarin gas grenade over the embassy walls and through a window as the leader also did so. They then got off the motorbike as both grenades exploded, exposing the embassy staff inside to the deadly chemical agent.

After opening the gates, they charged into the embassy through its front doors as its staff tried to flee. When 2 more soldiers spotted them within the building, both women grabbed something underneath their shirts and pulled. Right after, explosive vests underneath their shirts exploded, killing both soldiers and several embassy staff that were trying to flee, including Vale's ambassador to Menagerie. Both of the vests also had sarin in them as well, further exposing the people in the embassy to the agent. In this attack, the 2 women managed to rack up a kill count of 17 civilians and 7 soldiers, mostly through the release of the sarin and due to the explosions.

* * *

The time was now 1:42 P.M. It had been 190 minutes since the attack had begun.

In Vale, firefighters on the ground were just beginning to hear of the ensuing attacks in Menagerie, worrying them further. Team RWBY, Ren, Penny, and George continued to discuss the attacks further when they were not assisting the Command Post in the lobby of Building 1. Weiss had a radio up to her ear, and could hear Winter, who had just entered the impact zone to do more firefighting for the 4th time that day, communicating with the staging area on the 99th Floor Sky Lobby. Winter said, "You got the relief crew ready for us, right?"

The staging officer replied, "All ready, Captain."

"Good," Winter replied. "I got..." Suddenly, even though her mic was still on, Winter got quiet as Weiss heard a rumbling on the radio. Then, Winter frantically said, "OH GOD! OH MY GOD, NO-" Then, she went quiet as Weiss heard the rumbling again above her. Everyone in the lobby immediately looked up as well in confusion. Then, their looks turned to that of shock.

Ruby immediately realized what was going on and bolted towards the exit, shouting at the top of her lungs, "RUN! THE BUILDING'S FALLING!" Everyone on the ground floor immediately panicked and rushed for the exits. The gang got split up by the chaos, with Yang and George running off together, holding each other's' right hands to stay together, Weiss, Blake, and Ren running off alone, and Ruby and Penny running towards Qrow. Screams could be heard from all around as people tried to flee the ensuing collapse.

As Ruby, Qrow, and Penny ran out onto the packed street and then into Building 2's lobby to reach the stairs, Building 1 came down at the seams. The section above the impact zone crushed the floors below it, causing a chain reaction of floors pancaking on top of each other. The sound of the collapse was comparable to that of a loud explosion, and dust from above began to fall onto the streets below.

Qrow, Penny, and Ruby were halfway up the stairs in Building 2's lobby to the second floor when Building 1's debris struck the ground, sending a massive cloud of dust into Building 2's lobby and smashing all of its windows. Many people on the ground floor of Building 2 were struck by flying debris as Qrow narrowly dodged a piece of flying metal. Once the three of them reached the second floor, located 25 feet above the ground floor, they all collapsed to it in exhaustion.

Ruby said to Penny, "What... What the fuck just happened?" Everyone was now caked in thick dust.

Penny replied to her, "It collapsed. It actually collapsed. I can't believe it..." Tears streamed from Penny's eyes as the full scale of what just happened hit her. "Everyone I know is dead... Damn it, they're all dead..."

Ruby told her, "Penny, no... That's not true... I'm sure Team RWBY all made it out in time... Penny, please, stop crying..." Ruby herself began to cry as well. "I'm sure Weiss, Blake, Yang, George, Ren, and my dad are all okay... I... I hope they are..." She then hugged Penny as they wept together.

Qrow said to himself, "Oh... Oh my God..." He then wiped his face to try and get the dust off, to no avail, before coughing. "What's happening right now? Really, why did this have to happen to us?"

* * *

In the situation room, Delwyn stared at the T.V. screens in utter shock, not saying a word. Many of his advisors on the Royal Cabinet did the same. Even the newscasters on T.V. were in shock, with a reporter on VNN saying, "This is a day that started bad, and it keeps on getting worse and worse and worse by the minute. Folks, we just witnessed a 165-story building collapsing in downtown Vale. I have never seen such devastation in my career or in my life. Not even the Battle of Beacon in 2015 comes close to this attack, folks."

After a moment of silence, Delwyn said to himself, "Ruby..." He then slumped his head between his arms onto the table. "Oh my God, Ruby..." He then began to cry to himself as his advisors looked on in worry. "Ruby, no..."

* * *

At the Ren residence, Nora, holding Leona in her arms, began loudly crying as she stared at her T.V. Leona, not knowing why her mother was crying, also began to cry as well. Nora held her close as she said, "Oh my God... Ren, no... Please be okay, Ren, please... We're waiting for you at home..."

Leona continued to cry, still not understanding why her mother was so sad and what she was seeing on T.V. Nora tried comforting her, but she was unable to keep herself calm.

"Your daddy is down there, Leona," Nora tried telling her daughter as she also tried to fight back the tears. "He's saving people because he's a hero. If... Oh my God... If he doesn't come home, remember that he's a hero, okay, jenta mi?" Nora would often call Leona by a term of endearment in her native language of Norusk, while Ren would use a term of endearment in his native language of Han when talking to Leona. Nora then cried again as she continued to watch the news and hold Leona.


	47. Season 3: Part 7

The time was 1:55 P.M. It had been 12 minutes since Building 1 collapsed, and 202 minutes since the attack had begun.

Yang and George were walking along the dust-covered streets of downtown Vale near the USC, trying to find their friends and their fire companies. As Yang coughed, she wiped her forehead and said, "Georgie... I... I still can't believe it..."

"Tell me about it," George replied. By now, the full gravity of the situation had set in.

As they stared into the distance, they saw a convoy of fire trucks from a fire company out in the "new areas" heading down to the disaster site. Yang flagged them down before they passed by. The driver of the company's engine, a beat up and used pumper bought from another company in the city made in 1993 and serving on its third career, stopped it and asked them, "Are you two alright?"

"I think so," Yang replied. "Can we hitch a ride? I'm with the Vigilant Fire Company and my boyfriend here is with the Goodwill Hose Company."

"Hop in," the driver replied. A firefighter sitting in the back of the 8-man cab opened the left hand passenger door and waved them in.

As Yang and George got on, the officer on the engine, a young lieutenant sitting up front, said to them, "Just hold onto something. All the seats are full."

A junior firefighter sitting in a flip down seat, looking to be no more than 14 years old, said to Yang, "Wow, your gear is completely covered."

"That's saying the least of it," Yang replied to the kid. "I assume you guys are out in the new areas of the city?"

"Yup," said an older firefighter sitting in an SCBA seat. "We're from the Lee Fire Company, Station 167, of District 13. You're riding in Engine 1302, which we bought from the Scarlet Brandy Fire Company out in District 7 this year, which they bought from the Drexel Hill Fire Company in District 4 back in 2007."

"Oh," George replied. "I bet this rig has seen its fair share of fires."

"You bet," another firefighter replied. "But I bet it hasn't seen anything like this."

* * *

The time was 2:04 P.M.

By now, Weiss, Ruby, Ren, Penny and Qrow had all met up in a pizza shop located near the collapse zone. As Qrow drank a bottle of water, Ruby dialed Yang's phone number. Finally, after 2 earlier attempts, Yang finally answered. Yang said to her sister, "Hello? Ruby?"

Ruby immediately asked, "Yang, where are you?"

"I'm at Building 3's lobby with a fire company from the new areas," Yang replied. "Any idea where Dad, Blake, Weiss, and Ren are?"

"Weiss and Ren are with me, Penny, and Qrow," Ruby replied as she sighed. "Dad and Blake, though... I have no idea..."

"Oh no," Yang replied in worry. "This isn't good..."

Suddenly, in the background of Yang, Ruby heard the ground rumble. She shouted in horror, "Yang, what the hell is that?!"

Qrow ran outside to see what was going on as Yang replied frantically, "Building 2 is coming down! It's coming down! I gotta go!" She then hung up as a stunned Ruby stared into the wall in shock.

Qrow ran back in and shouted to the gang, "Building 2 just came down! The dust cloud is coming back!"

Penny said to herself in fear, "No... No way... This is just like Beacon..." Then, as the entire gang plus the pizza shop's employees stared out the front windows, they saw the dust cloud once again turn the sky outside into pitch black, as if night had descended upon Vale, reinvigorated by the collapse of Building 2, which killed even more first responders and civilians.

Weiss thought to herself, _"Never did I expect to see something as terrible as this. This... This is something else... I thought I had seen the worst in the fire service, but this... This day tops them all..."_

* * *

_March 1, 2019_

Weiss was giving a presentation to a Public Speaking class Team RWBY had all taken together in their senior year at Beacon. Problem was, Weiss had procrastinated and did not get the project done. The project involved a presentation about experiences in your life.

"Miss Schnee," said the teacher of the class, Professor Peach. "You are up."

Ruby patted a worried Weiss on the back, saying, "You're great at coming up with stuff on the fly, Weiss. You got this."

Weiss replied, "Thanks." She then got up and walked to the front of the classroom to face the class.

Professor Peach said to her, "Well, go on."

"Thank you," Weiss replied. She then said, "So, today I'm here to talk about experiences in my life. Well, I decided to talk about my second passion in this world, apart from hunting Grimm." She then wrote "FIREFIGHTING" on the chalkboard behind her. "If you do not know already, I am a volunteer firefighter. My whole family, alongside being businesspeople, are volunteer firefighters. We all belong to the Vigilant Fire Company, which is the Vale City Fire Department's Station 5."

Ruby thought to herself, _"There you go, Weiss! I knew you could do it!"_

"We are not paid a single sublien for our services to the City of Vale," Weiss continued. "And we would gladly prefer it to stay that way. We spend 12 to 24 hours a month at the firehouse, and all other times, we are summoned to calls by pagers, and if it is a fire call, by sirens. Beacon Academy has its own fire company as well, which is composed of students and staff. I've run calls with them a few times at large fires in the past." She then cleared her throat. "Anyways, you all notice the scar on my face, right?" She then pointed to it. "I got it from fighting a robot knight and stuff, yeah. However, that is not the only physical scar I have."

Yang thought to herself, _"Hmmm... She's never told us where the other scars came from..."_

Weiss then pulled up the right sleeve of her shirt, revealing a long scar running down her forearm. "See this? I got this 7 stories up in an apartment last summer during break. I was pulling an old faunus lady out and I lost my Halligan tool, so I had to punch a window with my right hand to break it. I did not account for my coat sleeve getting pulled up by the glass and cutting me, barely missing several major blood vessels in my wrist. I also did not account for the old lady dying in the hospital of smoke inhalation an hour later."

Several students were a little uneasy from the story, but many were interested. Weiss continued by revealing a scar on her right side and saying, "See this? This was from my third fire as an interior firefighter. This drunk guy had accidentally started the fire when he fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand. Me and my father were getting him out and were bringing him down the stairs when they gave way. We fell half a story and landed on metal spikes. Long story short, the guy we pulled out lived. 5 kids and their mom died."

Blake was horrified by the stories being told, thinking to herself, _"Oh my God... Weiss, you've never told us this..."_

"Then there's this," She then pulled down her stockings to reveal a horizontal scar on her lower right leg. "Remember how a lot of firefighters wear those rubber thigh-high boots and those long coats? Well, I got this one at a car accident, not a fire. We were cutting a student in my grade out of a car during the summer break after my first year at Beacon. His girlfriend was going to be a freshman at Beacon once the summer was over. They both were drunk. As I was using a set of spreaders, a piece of metal cut through my right boot and slashed my leg up. Obviously, we threw the boot right out afterwards. The whole time we were doing this, the girl was unconscious and the guy was wide awake and saying, 'Please, Weiss, save my girlfriend, save my girlfriend! I love her too much to see her die!' Long story short, his girlfriend lived, though she never walked again. The guy we cut out of the car died of crush syndrome an hour later at the hospital, and he died because we were unable to see that one of his fingers was badly pinned. A finger! They call it the "smiling death" because one minute you're all happy that you've been freed from being crushed, and then suddenly you go into cardiac arrest because all of those dead cells in the crushed area go to your heart." The whole time, Weiss was expressionless and just told her stories.

Weiss then wrote on the chalkboard "MENTAL SCARS" before saying, "Not every scar is one you can see, though. I've had nightmares about calls before. The Battle of Beacon was not the only traumatic event I've been through." She then paused. "One time... It was a week before I went to Beacon for my first year. Me and my sister pulled a little girl out of a flophouse. One bedroom, 15 people living in it. As we're going down the stairs, I decide to take my mask off so I can rotate it between me and her. The little girl is holding her cat. The whole time, she's screaming, 'Please, Mrs Fireman, save my cat.' So I start rotating the mask between me, her, and the cat. The cat lived. The girl died."

She then paused more before her next story. "Then, there's a fire I had during winter break of this year. First time I had a fatal fire since last summer with the old lady. Me and a guy from my company pulled this little dog faunus boy out of a closet. He was like 10. He was badly burnt. His dog ears were black with burns and his tail was all skin with no fur. He was wearing nothing but underwear. His skin was peeling off, so he was slipping and sliding in my arms. He falls out of my arms onto the floor. I pick him up, bring him outside, and a month later, he died at a burn center."

Professor Peach was visibly shaken by Weiss's stories. Weiss continued, "Now, not every call is like this. For every call where someone dies, there's always one where someone lives. I've delivered 5 babies, and all have lived. I've saved a 28-year-old man coming home from work that got hit by a stray bullet from a gangbanger drive-by in the head. I've pulled a couple people out of burning buildings ranging from the ages of 5 months to 104 years that all lived. Me and my uncle helped talk down a suicidal 15 year old that had slit her wrists up with a knife when I myself was only 14. Of course, then there are the mundane ones. The fire alarms that go off because of dust in the sensors or because some idiot that thought they knew how to cook really didn't. The guy or girl that calls 911 5+ times a month to go to the hospital for the stupidest... The stupidest stuff." Weiss caught herself from swearing. "The cellar pump out because a pipe burst in the dead of winter below freezing in the basement of an office building or apartment building. The car accident where the only injuries are someone's pride and some leaking gasoline on the ground. The mundane ones are the most common." She then paused.

Weiss concluded with, "After all that, you may wonder why I still subject myself to this seemingly mind-boggling torture for absolutely no monetary compensation. Well, I do it because I cannot imagine myself not doing it. Due to some issues with my own blood family in the past, even with the whole family tradition thing, the firehouse was often the only place where I could interact with people who weren't upper class. I broke free of my bubble everytime I went there. My family expected this to happen, but they were not expecting how much it would really open me. Really, before I went to Beacon and became a member of Team RWBY, the other volunteers were the only people I truly opened up to. Hell, they even kept secrets from my father, who was the Captain of the company for a while, at my request. Even at Beacon, I never fully opened up, even to my own team, until around the Battle of Beacon. The sense of belonging, plus the emotional benefit of knowing that you can make a difference in someone's day, are not only why I am a huntress, but why I am a volunteer firefighter, and I would not want it any other way."

* * *

_August 23, 2021_

The time was now 2:15 P.M.

At the Semzona Central Terminal, the crisis had lasted for 30 minutes after the first 15 minutes of bloodshed. All 10 terrorists holed up inside the ticket booth were still alive and active. They now had taken 25 civilians and 7 disarmed police officers hostage. Their kill count was at 34 civilians and 8 police officers.

The Chief of the Semzona Metropolitan Police Service, a veteran of the Vale City Police Department until he emigrated to Menagerie and became a police officer there in 1996 for a total of 38 years of experience named Joseph Vaugeois, said to the terrorists in Valeanian over a cellphone from outside the train station, "This is the Chief of Police. I am here to inform you that we have you completely surrounded. We urge you to release the hostages and surrender peacefully to us."

"Never," replied the leader of the terrorists. "I'll never surrender to a fake regime like you. Your regime fornicates with humanity and must be destroyed by all means necessary at all costs."

"At all costs? You murder other faunus like it's nothing." Chief Vaugeois had many years of hostage negotiation experience in both Vale and Menagerie. "Now, look, I understand you are upset at racism against our kind. I am, too. But as I have said before, this is not the way to go."

"Don't give me your petty talk, race traitor!" The leader of the terrorists was still uncompromisingly hard to work with. "You work with public safety, the enemy of faunus! We just killed a bunch of firefighters in Vale when those buildings went down, after all. Goodbye, and may you burn in Hell." The leader then coldly hung up.

"I got nothing else," said Chief Vaugeois in Fanusian to an assistant. "We need to kill them somehow."

* * *

Back in Vale, Qrow, Ruby, Weiss, Penny, and Ren decided to walk towards the USC again to find Yang and George, as well as the now relocated command post. A text had been sent out on the cellphones of all firefighters in Vale urging them to report to the new command post at Protection Fire and Engine Company 1's fire station as soon as possible for personnel accountability.

Within a few minutes, they arrived at the station. It was covered in a thick layer of dust from the collapse, and several backup generators were running to maintain electricity to the station. In the empty apparatus bays, a bunch of desks had been set up, three for each district in the city. Trucks coming into the disaster site would make a stop there, have the highest-ranking person on the truck give the personnel accountability nametags of all the firefighters on board to a desk, and then drive away.

Weiss walked up to a desk for District 2 and said to them, "Me and my crew here are from the Vigilant Fire Company." Qrow had gone off to a desk for District 20, the newly-created district for Patch Island. "I am Weiss Schnee." She then pointed to the rest of the group in order. "That is Ruby Rose, that is Lie Ren, and that is Penny Polendina."

The firefighter manning the desk said after writing the names down, "Alright. Say, are there any captains from your company that you saw wandering around here? We only have three lieutenants that have made their way here from Vigilant Fire. They are Dafydd ap Llewelyn, Ling Hua Qiao, and Ross Key."

Weiss paused as she realized where Arthur, Winter, and Julian were when Building 1 came down. "Oh my God... They were all up on the 99th floor of Building 1 with the other lieutenants. We left Dafydd, Qiao, and Ross down below." She then buried her face into her hands. "Oh my God, no..." She then sighed. "Give me a piece of paper and a roll of duct tape. I know what I need to do."

"Okay," said the firefighter at the desk, confused as he gave her what she needed. He then handed her a black marker. Weiss grabbed it and wrote down "ACTING 1ST CAPTAIN" on the paper before taking her helmet off and taping it to her shield.

"Effective immediately, I am the 1st Captain of the Vigilant Fire Company," Weiss said. She then left the desk to send a text to the surviving officers of the company. "Effective immediately, Dafydd ap Llewelyn is the 2nd Captain, Ling Hua Qiao is the 3rd Captain, and Ross Key is the 1st Lieutenant. I will fill all other positions as needed when we report back to the firehouse. -1st Captain Weiss Schnee."

Ruby said to Weiss as she saw the paper, "Are you sure you want to take on that responsibility, Weiss, after all this?"

"Ruby," Weiss replied, holding back tears. "Somebody needs to do it, even if... Even if most of my family just died..." She then hugged Ruby, Penny, and Ren as she broke down and cried. "Oh my God... I'm orphaned... My father, my uncle, my sister, maybe some of my cousins... They're gone..."


	48. Season 3: Part 8

The time was 2:28 P.M.

Yang and George had escaped the collapse of Building 2 by climbing up the stairs of Building 3 to the 3rd floor to avoid debris. Once the dust had settled, they decided to get as far away from Building 3 as possible and report to Protection's station for accountability.

As soon as they walked in, Yang immediately saw Ruby and bolted to her, screaming, "Ruby!"

Ruby immediately noticed her and stood up, having been sitting on the floor, tired out, and extended her arms out as Yang wrapped her arms around her and cried. Ruby also began crying, saying, "Yang, oh my God... I thought you were dead..."

"I'm so glad you're okay," Yang said. "Oh, thank God. I thought I lost you." She then looked at Weiss and split from Ruby, asking her, "Weiss... Are... What's that thing on your helmet?"

Weiss stood up and told her bluntly, "Most of my family is dead, and so are most of our lieutenants and all of our captains. I am now the Acting 1st Captain, Yang."

"Oh my God..." Yang's eyes widened with shock. "Who's left?"

"The 7th, 8th, and 9th lieutenants."

"Fucking hell," Yang replied as she buried her face in her hands. "Everyone we know is dead..."

Suddenly, they all heard a rumbling noise outside. As Ruby ran out to see what it was, another volunteer firefighter yelled, "Building 3's coming down now! Holy shit!"

Ruby immediately ran back in as a third giant dust cloud came rolling down the street and several firefighters and police officers on the street ran in to escape it. She yelled to the gang, "The last tower of the three collapsed!"

George said to Yang, "I need to find out about my company." He then gave Yang a quick kiss before he went off to an accountability table to check in.

* * *

The time was 2:45 P.M.

At the Semzona Central Terminal, the hostage crisis was now on its first hour. 4 snipers from the Menagerian Army's Red Impulse SOU had taken positions in the train station secretly, all located on the third floor balcony in the lobby in its four corners. All they needed was a go-ahead to fire.

Chief Vaugeois, after much deliberation, decided to give the go-ahead. He radioed in English to the snipers, "It has been made. Begin."

All 4 snipers then readied themselves, taking aim at 4 random terrorists as a police SWAT team readied itself at the front doors to begin entry once the first 4 shots were fired. All 4 waited for a couple of seconds to aim. Then, as if they were all linked together, they squeezed their triggers at almost the exact same time.

Instantly, the sound of 4 gunshots rang out, and 4 of the 10 terrorists dropped to the floor, dead from bullets to the head. The leader of the terrorists yelled in Fanusian, "Shit! The cops are coming!"

Immediately afterwards, a team of 20 heavily armed SWAT officers stormed the train station lobby as they were met with a hail of bullets. The 32 hostages quickly made their escape to one of train platform entrances on the right side of the lobby, where they were met with 5 more SWAT officers waiting for them.

For the next 17 minutes, the police and the 6 remaining terrorists battled each other, pinning each other down in a hail of bullets. Then, at 3:02 P.M., the firing ceased from the terrorists. 2 sets of hands extended up from the ticket counter in surrender, one of them with a bullet hole in the right arm. 4 officers quickly moved in and found the last 2 alive terrorists, badly hurt and afraid. One of the officers yelled in Fanusian as he aimed his rifle at them, "Get out of the booth now! Come out with your hands up!"

As they both exited, 2 stretchers were wheeled out to them. The last 2 terrorists, too weak to resist, simply collapsed onto them and gave up.

Finally, the crisis was over. 34 civilians, 12 police officers (8 before the final raid and 4 during the final raid), and 8 terrorists were killed in the attack on the train station, with over 80 people injured as well. None of the 32 hostages that were taken were killed, though 16 were injured.

* * *

The time was 3:17 P.M.

Blake Belladonna adjusted her vision as she slowly opened her eyes to a dark and desolate place. She said to herself, "Ugh... Where...?" She tried to get up, but instead hit her head on something. "Agh, fuck! Where am I?!" She looked down and saw that her hip boots were badly cut up by pieces of metal. She looked above her and saw a giant piece of rebar on top of her. "Holy shit... I'm in... I got buried..." Then, she suddenly passed out again.

When she woke up, she was standing upright in an empty white room, or, at least, it seemed t be an empty white room. She looked around and saw nobody.

"Okay," Blake said, now really confused. "First, I was underneath a huge debris pile, and now, I'm in whatever the hell this place is. What's going on here?!"

Suddenly, a voice called out from behind, "I can help you."

Blake jumped and turned around, yelping in fright. When she saw the person in front of her, she asked herself, "Wait... Raven?!"

"Yeah," Raven Branwen replied. Or, well, what seemed to be Raven Branwen, wearing her normal hunting outfit. "It's me." She had what seemed to be a long scar running around her neck.

"But... But you're dead! Does that mean I'm dead?!" Blake was now scared out of her wits.

"No, you're not dead, Blake." Raven then sighed. "Unfortunately, a lot of people are." She then began to hang her head. "Including Tai."

Blake, shocked, asked her, "What?! Ruby and Yang's dad is dead?!"

"He was crushed by Building 2 when it fell while trying to help an injured civilian out of a damaged subway station," Raven replied, saddened. "You were crushed, too, but you were crushed by Building 1, unlike him, and you found an air pocket, also unlike him."

Blake, shocked, stared at her in silence for a few seconds. Then, she said, "Oh my God... Is Team RWBY alive?"

"Yep, they all made it." Raven then noticed something behind Blake. "What the hell is that?"

Blake turned around and saw a giant red portal that had just formed. "Is that a portal of some kind?"

"Looks kinda like the ones I made when I was alive," Raven replied, noticing the similarities. "No idea what it does, though."

"I think it's a portal back to the real world," Blake said. "It's gotta be." She then questioned herself. "Wait, could this just be a hallucination or something?"

"Oh, I remember," Raven said to Blake, now remembering what the portal was for. "Yeah, that goes back to the real world. It only pops up when not quite dead people come here. This is the second time this has happened to me since I got murdered, the first being with a random stranger who got run over by a taxi on his bike a month ago."

"Oh," Blake replied, confused. "So Ii just go through it?"

"Yup, it's that simple."

Blake then thought to herself. "Raven, you should come with me."

Raven looked at Blake in disbelief as she said, "What?"

"Do you know what happens if a dead person crosses through?"

Raven replied, "No, but I don't want to take that chance, considering I got decapitated."

"Raven," Blake explained to her. "Taiyang Xiao Long, the father of your child and your stepchild and the love of your life, is dead. Ruby and Yang are going to be orphans. If there is a way for you to come back, take this chance. They will need you now more than ever. You should have seen how torn up Yang was about your death. She brutally killed the guys that killed you a few days afterwards."

Raven, now considering it, said, "What if I only come back as a ghost, or I come back and instantly die since my body is rotting and decapitated in a grave somewhere on Patch?"

"I'd take that chance," Blake said to Raven. "Do it for your daughter. Do it for your husband. Do it for your stepdaughter."

Raven then sighed and took Blake's hand. "You know what? I'll take that chance." They then slowly walked into the portal together. As they did, Raven closed her eyes and hoped for the best, but expected the worst.

Immediately, Blake woke back up in the debris pile and opened her eyes, breathing hard and fast. She then calmed herself down and said to herself, "I... Was that real?" She then continued to look around, finding only more concrete, rebar, and steel surrounding her. "God, I hope they get me out of here soon..." Then, a sharp pain hit her left leg and left arm. As she screamed in pain, she realized that they were both broken. As soon as that happened, she began to feel the same sharp pain in her chest. "Agh, fuck! How many fucking bones did I break, God damn it?!"

* * *

On Patch Island, Raven suddenly found herself standing in front of a grave in a deserted cemetery. She immediately felt herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming as she said, "I... I'm alive...?" She then looked down at the grave below her and recognized the name. "Oh my God... This is my grave!" Raven then immediately drew her sword and began cutting up the ground in a giant square. Once that was done, she dropped down to her knees and began digging with her bare hands, sometimes using her sword to assist.

After a few minutes, she gave up and decided to run back to Taiyang's house, which was just a few houses down from the cemetery. As she ran out of the cemetery, thoughts began racing through her head about Yang and Ruby.

After a few more minutes, she came back to her own grave with a shovel, her hands filthy from the dirt. Amazingly, she had attracted no attention due to everyone being so focused on the attacks on the T.V. She immediately started digging into the ground, having just barely dug up a foot through a small hole with her bare hands.

After about 25 minutes of intense digging, her shovel hit the lid of her coffin in the small hole she had made. She immediately drew her sword again and drove it right through the coffin, cutting out a small hole in its lid. As she peered down, she could barely see, so she used a flashlight she kept on her hunting outfit to peer down.

To her shock, there was no body in the coffin from what she could see. "Oh my God... I... How did that happen?!" She then fell to her knees and covered her mouth in shock. "How... How do I explain that?! What am I supposed to say about that?! I'm back from the dead... But how?!" She then ran out of the cemetery, still holding the shovel and her sword, back to Taiyang's house, which was deserted.

After putting the shovel away, she found that the front door was unlocked. "God damn it, Tai," she said to herself. "You forgot to lock the door again." As she walked in, she took her shoes off and sat down at the kitchen table, grabbing a notepad and a pen before writing down a lengthy note explaining what had happened to her. "I hope someone believes me."

* * *

The time was 4:45 P.M.

By now, a fourth building had collapsed about half an hour earlier, Building 6, a short 75-story office building that had been heavily damaged by the three previous collapses.

Delwyn had just arrived at the disaster site. As soon as he stepped out of the royal limo, he was met by the acting incident commander, Assistant Fire Commissioner Ryan Roth. Ryan said to him, "Your Majesty, we have had four building collapses and countless fatalities and injuries for both civilians and first responders." He then saluted him.

Delwyn shook his hand and saluted him before saying, "How bad are the casualties for first responders?"

"So far," Ryan said to him. "We have at least 1,000 firefighters and 400 police officers either dead or missing, and both of those numbers are climbing. Your Majesty, this is by far the worst tragedy in the fire service and the law enforcement service in all of Remnant history."

Then, they both heard a voice behind Ryan call out, "Delwyn?! Is that you?!"

Delwyn peered behind Ryan and immediately recognized the female voice calling out to him. "Ruby?! Oh my God, you're okay!"

Ruby immediately ran up to him and hugged him. Delwyn returned it, not caring that his outfit was getting covered in dust from Ruby's turnout gear. Ruby burst into tears, saying, "Delwyn... Oh my God..."

Delwyn then kissed her without a second thought. As Ruby returned the favor, tears still streamed down her face. Once they split, Delwyn said to her, "I'm going to give a speech. I need you to be beside me, my love."

"I will be," Ruby replied. They then both held hands as they walked to the disaster site.

Ryan asked Delwyn, "So, this is the girl you are with, Your Majesty?"

"Yes, she is," Delwyn replied as they continued to talk. "Firefighter Ruby Rose of the Vigilant Fire Company."

"Oh man. The Vigilants were hit pretty hard." Ryan the shook his head in disbelief. "How do you react to losing a couple hundred guys? How?! That isn't something you plan for, ever!" He then sighed. "This has been a rough day..."

* * *

At 5:15, the King began his speech, holding a bullhorn as he stood on a crate in front of Protection's fire station with Ruby, Assistant Fire Commissioner Roth, and Assistant Police Commissioner Darren Hassle by his side along with three bodyguards. "Now, I know this seems a bit impromptu, with me holding a bullhorn instead of being behind a podium in a press conference room or something, but I felt that I had to go down here. I had to go down here and experience this. My subjects need me down here. Anyways, I want you all to know that the entirety of Vale is behind you all. Hell, all of Remnant who stand for decency and justice is behind you all. Despite this great tragedy, we will not cower in fear and give in to hate, because the minute we do, the people that knocked these buildings down win. Now, I don't know about you, but I would rather not have them win if this is what they think winning is. Rather, we all must come together. We all need to rebuild. We all need to stand up."

After a round of applause from the many firefighters and police officers that watched, he continued, saying, "When the White Fang claimed responsibility for this cowardly attack, they asked us if we could hear their pathetic excuse for so-called "vengeance." Well, yes. I can hear you. We hear you. All of Vale hears you. All of Remnant hears you. Soon, though, you'll hear from us!" As Delwyn shouted that last part as loud as he could, the crowd applauded him and began chanting 'Long Live Vale!'

"I want to close out with this: The first responders here have gone above and beyond the call of duty today. Sadly, many have paid with their lives. However, let me be the first to tell you that their deaths were not in vain! Sure, thousands may be dead, but thousands more owe their lives right now to your work today. These buildings... These buildings held over 100,000 people each. I talked to Assistant Fire Commissioner Roth, and he has confirmed that the death toll will not exceed 20,000. That is far too many people, far too many. Even so, that's 20,000 out of over 300,000 people, and that's the absolute worst estimate. Those over 280,000 others owe their lives to you all, including the ones amongst you who made the ultimate sacrifice today. That alone means that your efforts were not in vain, right there!" The crowd went wild with applause afterwards, agreeing with him. "Vale will always stand behind its first responders and support them through thick and thin, and you can tell them that King Delwyn IV said that!"

Ruby thought to herself, _"Delwyn, you've grown so much since we met. You're no longer the timid young king you once were." _She stood, tall and proud, next to Delwyn.

Delwyn then took Ruby's hand as they walked into the Protection firehouse as the crowd continued to cheer for him and chant 'Long Live Vale!' Once they reached the middle of the apparatus bay, Delwyn said to her, "Ruby, are you alright?"

"Well..." Ruby became saddened. "Not really. This has been an awful day for me."

Delwyn then grabbed something out of his coat. "Ruby, I wanted to do this tomorrow, but due to the circumstances, I feel the need to do it now." He then sighed with worry as he knelt down on one knee and took Ruby's left hand before revealing what he had grabbed, a ring.

Instantly, Ruby's face lit up as, for the first time since the disaster began, she smiled. "Oh my God..."

"Ruby Rose, I love you," Delwyn began. "You are the best friend I could ever have, and the best girlfriend I could ever have. With you, I opened up, and without you, I would not be the man nor the ruler of this kingdom I am today. Every day, I picture spending my whole life with you. I know this may seem a bit pressuring to you, due to my social and political status, but forget about all that. Even if I was just a commoner, or if you were in my place, I would feel no different about you." She then presented the ring to her. "Ruby Rose, will you marry me?"

Ruby began crying again, but this time, she felt elated as she nodded and said, "Yes... Yes... Yes!" She then hugged Delwyn as she said, "I would love to!"

Yang immediately ran over and said to George, "Oh my God, my baby sister got engaged!" She smiled, too, enjoying this momentary distraction from the daunting task at hand.

George said to Yang, "That was an amazing proposal." He then held Yang's hand as they continued to watch.

A bodyguard looked at Delwyn and said to him, "Congratulations, Your Majesty."

After Ruby and Delwyn split, Delwyn put the ring on Ruby's left ring finger. He said to her, "I know this is a tough day for you. I'm glad I was able to brighten it up at least a little bit, my Queen."

Ruby laughed slightly and replied to him, "Wow... I really am going to be a queen..."

* * *

The time was around 7:45 P.M.

The entirety of the Vigilant Fire Company that had been accounted for had been returned to their station. However, they had no trucks, since Truck 201, Rescue 201, and Ambulance 201 had all been destroyed. The military had brought them back on their own apparatus instead. Delwyn had to run back to the Royal Palace to begin planning for tomorrow's operations.

As Team RWBY, minus Blake, sat in the officer's office, Weiss cleaned a brand new red helmet while sniffling, still upset at the deaths of her father, her uncle, and her sister, but putting it in the back of her mind.

Then, a soldier ran into the office, saying, "I got a message for Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and Captain Weiss Schnee."

"That would be us," Ruby replied. "What is it?"

"I...," the soldier began. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that they just found Blake Belladonna alive and rescued her from the debris pile."

Yang immediately said, "She's alive?! Thank God!" She then breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"But... Ruby, Yang, it is with deep regret that I inform you that your father, Taiyang Xiao Long, is deceased." The soldier's mood drastically changed. "They found part of his body not too long ago."

Ruby was in disbelief. "No... No way... That's... He's alive! There's no way he's dead!" As tears welled up in her eyes, she turned to Yang and said, "Dad... Dad isn't dead, right?"

"Ruby," Yang, also now getting ready to cry, said back. "Dad's dead... Oh my God..." She then broke down and fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably as Ruby then joined her.

Weiss got up and said to the soldier, "I will take care of this."

All of a sudden, Yang got up off the ground, having suddenly stopped crying as she wobbled around and dunked her face into a nearby trash can before throwing up vomit into it. Ruby yelled, "Yang, what's wrong?!" She was still distraught over Taiyang's death.

The soldier said, "I'll grab a medical kit from our engine."

Yang said as she fell to the floor again and grabbed her stomach, "Ugh... Now I don't feel so good..." She was still crying. Then, she turned around and threw up into the trash can again.

"That's it," Weiss said. "I'm not taking any chances. Yang, you're going to the hospital. Now." She and a sniffling Ruby then helped a sick and weakened Yang up and out of the office. As the soldier passed by, Weis said to him, "We're bringing her to the hospital." She then turned to Denis and Theresa, who were talking amongst themselves near Denis's gear locker, "Denis, Kush, go clean the front trash can in my office. Yang threw up in it."

Theresa replied, "Got it." She and Denis then walked away to grab cleaning supplies.

* * *

The time was around 9:00 P.M.

"So," Yang asked a doctor at the hospital, surrounded by Ruby, George, Weiss, Ren, Nora (holding Leona), and Penny. "What's wrong with me, doctor? Also, how's Blake doing?" Blake happened to be in the same hospital, but on a different floor.

"Miss Belladonna is in surgery right now," the doctor replied. "So far, so good, so let's hope it stays that way. As for you, well, you don't have any food poisoning or anything weird in your bodily fluids."

Yang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank God..."

"But, we did find something in your urine sample." The doctor then showed her the urine results. "Look at the hCG levels."

"Wait a minute," Yang said in disbelief. "These hCG levels... Doctor, am..."

"Yang Xiao Long," the doctor said. "You are pregnant."

George, shocked, said, "Wait... Pregnant?! Oh my God..."

Yang did not know how to process the news. It was supposed to be happy news, but due to the day's events, she did not know what to think of it. "I... George..." She then looked at her boyfriend. "Honey, we're gonna be parents..."

Ren said to Yang, "Welcome to my world, Yang." He then turned to Leona and gave her a kiss, his infant daughter giggling in response.

"Oh my God," Ruby said. "If only Dad was here..." Ruby and Yang then both began to slightly cry again.

"It isn't fair," Weiss replied. "I know life is never fair, but this is going too God damn far."

Then, Jaune and Sun walked in. Sun said, "Hey, guys." As everyone said hi in response, Jaune walked in and gave Weiss a hug, tears streaming from her eyes. "Well, today has been... Something..."

"I heard the news," Jaune told Weiss. "Damn it, that's rough..." He was deeply concerned for Weiss.

* * *

Back at Taiyang's house, Raven was watching the T.V., having gotten done with her sobbing and crying not too long ago. As she did, she heard the front door open.

Qrow walked into the house, not expecting the lights to be on and hearing the T.V. Sensing a presence, he asked, "Who's there?! The man that owns this house is dead!"

Raven got up from the kitchen table and walked in the front living room. "Qrow..."

Qrow immediately took a step back, shocked to see his dead sister standing in front of her. "Is... Is this some kind of sick joke?!"

"No," Raven replied. "I got a second chance, brother. It's me, Raven."

"No, this can't be real." Qrow was still in disbelief. "I buried you! I saw your head chopped off!"

Raven grabbed the shovel she had used to dig up her own grave, which she had left in the living room. "I used this to dig up my own empty grave. Brother, I came back, and when I did, my old body disappeared. I will literally show you my grave, Qrow."

"I will prove to you that she is dead, imposter!" Qrow then raced out of the house and got into his captain's car. Raven quickly ran behind him and got in the front seat next to him.

When they reached the cemetery, Raven pointed to her grave and said, "See?! I dug it up!"

Qrow and Raven quickly got out of the car and saw the partially dug up grave. "What?! What happened?!"

"Peer down that hole and see that there is no body," Raven told Qrow. As he did, his mouth opened in shock. "See?"

"Prove to me you're Raven," Qrow said. "What did Tai make me wear on the first day at Beacon?" Qrow was sure this "Raven imposter" would not know this.

"A female uniform, complete with a skirt." Raven stunned Qrow, who was finally beginning to accept her as the real Raven.

"No way... You are Raven..." Qrow then began to cry as he hugged her. "Oh my God... Raven, I missed you..." It was rare for Qrow to cry, even when he was drunk.

"I know, I know," Raven replied as she returned the hug. After they split, Raven said to him, "Qrow, I came back because Ruby and Yang need me now more than ever with their father dead. I need to reestablish my life and watch over them. I cannot screw things up again." Raven was dead serious. It was going to take a lot of work to get her life started again, but she and Qrow knew that it was necessary and that Ruby and Yang needed her now more than ever before.

* * *

Weiss and Jaune talked to each other outside of Yang's room. "So, you're the 1st Captain now, huh?"

"I'm afraid so," Weiss replied. "I've always wanted to be Captain, but never like this. This is awful." She then leaned on Jaune and sighed, holding his hand. "Jaune, thank you for being here with me."

"You're welcome, Weiss," Jaune replied. He thought to himself, _"I feel so helpless... Weiss is going through so much at once, and I feel like an outsider, even though I'm her boyfriend! Ugh... What do I do?"_

"Jaune," Weiss told him. "Have I mentioned to you yet that you complete my life?"

Jaune was taken aback a bit by this. He replied with, "Well... Not in words, but you've always shown me that through your actions..."

Weiss smiled and hugged him, saying, "I'm glad you're in my life, Jaune. You have no idea how much your support means to me right now." Jaune returned the hug with a short kiss before hugging Weiss as well.


	49. Season 3: Part 9

_**August 24, 2021**_

At 8:00 in the morning, Weiss called to order a lineup on the apron of the fire station. 38 of the remaining 67 volunteers, plus 2 of the remaining 5 paid personnel, lined up, wearing their gear and awaiting orders for the day. Ruby was with Delwyn for the day. Blake was still in the hospital from her extensive injuries. Yang was given time off due to her pregnancy and had met up with Raven and Qrow earlier that morning, with George accompanying her. Ren and Penny were able to show up.

Weiss, wearing her brand new red Captain helmet, said to the lined-up firefighters. "Yesterday, we lost 15 of our volunteers and 3 of our paid firefighters. I know that you are all still torn up about this. I am, too. However, that does not mean that our job ceases. Headquarters has requested manpower for rescue and recovery efforts down at the Union Square Centre site. By now, all 6 of the skyscrapers there have collapsed, and 84 people have been pulled from the rubble alive, with the most recent being just an hour ago. You do not have to fear about missing your day jobs, ladies and gentlemen. The law protects us. Anyways, there are two shifts available for us: 1000 Hours to 1600 Hours, and 1600 Hours to 2200 Hours. If you want to do both, you can, though you do not have to. I want each shift to have a crew of 8. Everyone else will stay at the station and cover our first-due."

The paid lieutenant said to Weiss by raising his hand, "Me and Firefighter Johnson will do both shifts, by the way. Do you have any medics that will cover for us on the ambulance?"

"We do have several volunteer medics, Lieutenant," Weiss replied. "Also, the military has a 4-man crew stationed as well with 1 medic. Due to losing our apparatus, we decided to pull out our antique rigs from the citywide apparatus repair shops." She then pointed to the open apparatus bays, revealing the trucks Weiss was referring to. Truck 201, for now, was an antique 1952 Knebworth 85' wooden tiller ladder that originally served from 1952 to 1966, the last wooden ladder and the last tiller ladder purchased by the company. Engine 201, for now, was an antique 1955 VMC pumper with a 1000 GPM pump and a 300-gallon water tank that originally served from 1955 to 1970. Engine 201B, for now, was a 2013 Juliet/Avex pumper with a 1250 GPM pump and a 500-gallon water tank. Ambulance 201, for now, was a 2003 Juliet/Avex ambulance pulled from the VCFD's spare apparatus pool. The brand new Avex-built Rescue 201 and Engine 201, both ordered well before the attacks, were to be delivered on September 5.

* * *

At the Royal Palace, Ruby had been given intelligence briefings about state secrets since yesterday due to her new position as Queen-to-be. They had been tiring and often repetitive. After an intelligence briefing on the attacks, Ruby said to Delwyn in the now empty meeting room, "Is it just me, or are most of these briefings repetitive and boring?"

"It's not just you," the young king replied. "When my father died and I was crowned, I felt the exact same way."

Ruby then sighed. "I should be down there with the fire department, not stuck here."

"You will be, soon." Delwyn then showed her a schedule. "There's nothing on your schedule after noon. You have your gear with you, right?"

"Yes," Ruby replied as she nodded. "It's in the room now. I had to wash all the dust off of it. After this, I gotta run to Patch first, then I'll go down to the site."

To Delwyn, it was odd seeing the normally upbeat Ruby so depressed. "Love, this is a tough time. I know." He then hugged his fiancée and kissed her forehead. "Trust me, we are gonna find the people that did this to us. All of us."

* * *

At 1:30 P.M., Ruby walked into her father's home in Patch. In the kitchen, Qrow, Yang, George, and Raven sat down. Raven said to Ruby, "Long time, no see, Ruby."

"Same here," Ruby replied as she went over and hugged her. After they split, she sat down.

Raven said, "Qrow caught me up to speed with what I missed." She then sighed. "I should have been down there with him."

"We know," Yang replied. "So, are you gonna go for it?"

"I don't know," Raven replied.

Ruby, confused, asked Qrow, "What are they talking about?"

"Raven is considering taking your dad's 1st Captain position in the Patch First Aid Squad," Qrow replied. "We already visited PFAS and SFC. Raven had life membership in both, so all we had to do was sign a bunch of paperwork yesterday, and effective today, she's a firefighter with both companies. We already talked to Patch's remaining officers, and they say they're on board with it."

"Oh," Ruby replied, not knowing how to reply. "That's odd..."

"You know what," Raven said. "I'm gonna do it."

George said, "Are you sure, Miss Branwen?"

"Hell yes, I'm sure," Raven replied, determined. "Patch First Aid needs a leader. I was a 1st Lieutenant there when I left. Sure, it was 24 years ago, but I'm not amnesiac." She then pulled her cellphone out to talk to a lieutenant from PFAS as she walked outside to drive to the station in Taiyang's Captain Car, which had miraculously survived the collapse of the USC buildings alongside Qrow's with only a few scratches.

* * *

At Patch First Aid Squad, 10 volunteers and a military crew of 4 were standing by. Of the company's 3 ambulances and 1 rescue, only 1 ambulance survived. They had to use a military ambulance, their antique 1980 ambulance from their collection, a military pumper, and their antique 1965 heavy rescue. Patch had lost 5 of their own, 3 of whom were also members of Signal Fire Company, which lost a further 4 people.

A volunteer noticed the Captain's car pulling up to the station. Out of it stepped Raven, who then walked into the building through the open apparatus bays. Another volunteer who recognized Raven said to her, "So, have you made your decision, Branwen?"

"I have," Raven replied. She then cleared her throat and turned to the other 9 volunteers. "Effective immediately, I am the 1st Captain of the Patch First Aid Squad." She was gloomy about the whole ordeal, missing Taiyang.

The volunteer that recognized her said, "Good choice. Tai's stuff is in the Captain's office. I assume you filled out all the necessary government paperwork and stuff since you... Uhhh... Came back from the dead?"

"I still don't really know, either," Raven replied as she walked into the office. "Well, there's no point in fussing over that. Let's get started."

* * *

At 4:45, Ruby showed up at the station. Penny and Ren had just gotten back from doing a shift at the site. Ren had to go back home, while Penny stayed at the station to cover the company with Ruby. Weiss had left to go down to the site.

In the rec room, everyone was quiet, still traumatized by yesterday's events. Ruby and Penny talked to Theresa and Denis, who were especially traumatized due to their younger ages. "You didn't get any sleep, huh?"

"Nope," Theresa replied to Ruby. "Me and Denis went to my place after the attack and tried to fall asleep, but we couldn't." She had bags under her eyes and her eyes were red. "Every time we closed our eyes, we were right back over there."

"I heard you both lost peers at your school," Penny said. "That's gotta suck."

"It does," Denis replied. "Our school lost 20 students who were junior firefighters." He then hung his head low. "This didn't have to happen."

Penny asked Ruby, "Who's gonna be filling the empty officer's positions?"

"It's on a board in the apparatus bay," Ruby replied. She then changed subjects. "Anyways, I heard that a bunch of SDC executives came over earlier."

"Oh yeah," Theresa replied. "There were like 10 guys from Vale and 5 guys from Atlas that came over. They're gonna transfer all of Hermann's stocks to Weiss to make her the CEO, and then the board is gonna appoint her as the chairman. She's gotta go to Atlas to meet with more execs on the 28th. She'll be back on the 31st."

"Damn," Penny replied. "She's getting handed all sorts of responsibility because of this."

"Nothing compared to me," Ruby replied, making sure she stayed as vague as possible to not reveal any state secrets. "I had to sit through several hours of intelligence briefings with Delwyn. I can't discuss what was said any further, for obvious reasons."

Then, a military firefighter ran in and said, "There was an assault outside!" Ruby, Penny, Theresa, and Denis stood up and all ran outside.

Outside, a paid firefighter and a volunteer were restraining a man who was trying to fight them, and a military firefighter was tending to a bloodied dark-skinned faunus man who Ruby recognized as a volunteer with Goodwill Hose Company. The restrained man kicked and screamed, "LET ME AT THAT DIRTY FURFAG!"

Ruby shouted at him, "Get the hell away from here! You attacked a firefighter!"

"Bullshit," the man yelled before spitting in the face of the paid firefighter restraining him. "He's a traitor! He's a mole! All these animals are moles! You saw what they did to Vale! And to top it off, he's a nigger too!"

Then, 2 police cars pulled up at blazing fast speed. 4 officers stepped out with their guns drawn and ran over, taking the combative suspect away in handcuffs as the paid firefighter wiped the spit off of his face. The volunteer who was attacked yelled, "Serves you right, piece of shit!"

The attacker told a police officer, "Why are you arresting me? That nigger furfag was the one that killed your friends."

The police officer angrily replied by punching him in the face and yelling, "Shut the fuck up!" He and another officer then threw the man in the back of a police car.

Another police officer walked over to the attacked volunteer, asking him as he took notes as another police officer took pictures of the scene, "What happened?"

"He...," the man stuttered as he began to cry. "I was jus- just visiting and th- then he came out of no- nowhere and started calling me all sorts of names." He then tried to regain his composure. "I tried showing him my Goodwill Hose Company t-shirt, but he ignored it and began attacking me."

"Alright," the officer said. "Were you stabbed or shot?"

The volunteer shook his head. "All he used were his fists and his feet."

* * *

At 10:15, King Delwyn prepared to give an address to all three houses of the Valeanian Parliament and to the world about joint Valeanian-Mistralian-Menagerian military airstrikes in Menagerie that had just begun 15 minutes prior. By his side was Ruby, who had to hastily leave the firehouse about an hour earlier, and several of his top advisors. The 21-year-old king was being put to the ultimate test with this attack, and so far, he had excelled.

"Mrs Speaker of Commons, Mr Speaker of Lords, Mr Speaker of the Governing Council, members of Parliament, and my fellow Valeanians, on a normal day, Kings and Queens come here to report on the State of the Kingdom. However, tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been delivered by the people of Vale. We have seen it with the pilots of those hacked planes, who messaged air traffic control and tried their best to gain back control of their aircraft. We have seen it with the thousands of firefighters, police officers, and EMTs, far too many of whom have paid the ultimate price. We have seen the unfurling of flags, the saying of prayers of all religions, and the giving of blood."

"We will not forget the thousands who have died from all nations. Every single nation in Remnant lost at least 5 of its citizens in this attack. Truly, this is a crime against us all. The White Fang has shown that it is the enemy of all nations by attacking us, Mistral, and Menagerie." As soon as he said that, several conservative members of parliament began to feel uneasy. "They have also shown that they wish to stir the pot and antagonize humans and faunus. Already, I have heard of attacks on faunus citizens of our kingdom. Anyone who commits these attacks is only playing into the White Fang's game, and is giving them a victory. They want us divided by race. We cannot allow them to do this."

Immediately, a conservative member of parliament stood up and shouted at the king, "Your majesty, this is not the time to give concessions to the radical faunus terrorists!" Numerous other conservative members stood up in support. "You are insensitive to the victims of these attacks by these radical faunus!"

The king, flabbergasted at being interrupted, replied, "Sir, this is not the time for YOUR actions!" As the conservative member tried to interrupt the king, he continued, saying, "Anyways, pardon the interruption." He then gave a hand signal to cut the offending MP's mic. "As I was saying, we have launched airstrikes in response due to these horrid attacks in full cooperation with Menagerie and Mistral in the western half of Menagerie, which has seen a full-scale civil war break out between the White Fang and the government in the span of just a day. I wish the brave men and women of our military, Mistral's military, and Menagerie's military the best of luck in hunting these terrorists down. We will not rest until the men and women that did this to our country are brought to justice and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I have already filed a motion to the International Criminal Court with Mistral and Menagerie to begin proceedings against the leaders of the White Fang. We will also be hunting down the alleged hackers that we believe could be responsible for hacking into those five planes, and we will try them in domestic courts."

Ruby was disgusted with the interruption, thinking to herself, _"This is no time for this bullshit. Such disrespect is not okay."_

"My fellow Valeanians, the White Fang will not divide us. We cannot let them divide us. Racism will not win. Thank you." Most people in Parliament cheered, save for about half of the conservatives in the Parliament. After Delwyn left the podium, he hugged and kissed Ruby before the two left together.


	50. Season 3: Part 10

_**August 27, 2021**_

Weiss plopped into bed at 11 P.M. From 5 in the morning to 10 in the morning, she spent 4 hours at the site. Then, she spent the rest of the day going to 3 funerals for firefighters, including the one for her uncle Alfred. Hermann and Winter's were going to be tomorrow. She had gotten only 3 hours of sleep the night before.

As she tried to sleep, she heard Pyrrha's familiar voice as her ghost entered the room. "So... Uhh... The last few days happened..."

Weiss sighed and replied, "Tell me about it, Pyrrha." She then got up to talk to her. "I never thought any of this would happen in my wildest dreams. Not even the Battle of Beacon comes close to this."

"I'm inclined to agree, actually," Pyrrha replied, pointing to one of her legs. "And I almost was permanently disabled by that arrow to the heel. If Ruby hadn't come when she did, I'd be dead. Well, I would have died earlier than I did, at least." She then changed subjects. "So, Ruby is gonna be marrying Delwyn IV, eh?"

"Yeah," Weiss replied before yawning. "That's also a thing. I never thought one of my best friends was gonna be royalty one day. Like, actual, real royalty, not business royalty like me." She then sighed. "Speaking of business royalty, I'm... I'm officially the CEO and Chairman of the SDC, effective today. I gotta deliver a speech at the SDC headquarters front entrance on the 31st. Then, I gotta start training Yang to drive the trucks at the firehouse, since she's pregnant and all and can't go into buildings for the next 9 or so months. Then, I gotta go to Atlas from the 6th to the 16th of September to deal with stuff over there."

Pyrrha then asked, "Is Jaune here?"

"He went to Beacon Academy for an officer's briefing with Ruby," Weiss replied. "He'll be home by midnight. I'm telling ya, if it wasn't for him, I'd be even more of a wreck than I already am now."

* * *

_**August 28, 2021**_

As Ruby sat at another morning intelligence briefing around 7:30, she got a call from Yang. She got up from the table and politely said, "Excuse me for one moment." As the rest of the table permitted her, she left the room and answered Yang's call outside the door. "Yang, what's up?"

"Ruby," Yang replied. "You'll never guess what George did." Ruby could tell Yang actually seemed kind of happy.

"What happened?" Ruby hadn't heard her sister be happy at all in 5 days.

"George proposed to me," Yang replied. "And I said yes. Ruby, we're going to be a family together."

Ruby smiled and replied to her sister, "Aww... I'm so glad, Yang." She then sighed. "Finally, some good news in all of this."

"I'll text you a picture of the ring after the call," Yang replied. "Well, I'll let you go. You're probably in some boring meeting, after all."

"Yeah," Ruby replied. "I love you, sis."

"I love you, too, Ruby," Yang replied before they both hung up.

Ruby then began to cry a little as she began thinking about her dad. _"If only Dad was here to see this..." _She then covered her face and sunk to the floor as she continued to cry. _"I know he's watching over us... I know he's proud that we've achieved all of this... You were the best father anyone could ever ask for..."_

* * *

At 12, Hermann and Winter's funeral began at a lavish private cemetery behind the Schnee House that contained the Schnee Family plot. Almost the entire Vigilant Fire Company, wearing their formal uniforms, had gathered there, since the service would also double as a general memorial service for the 15 dead or missing volunteers firefighters of the company.

A joint Atlesian-Valeanian honor guard flew the flags of Vale and Atlas and stood watch as the hundreds of attendees filed past the two caskets, draped in the flags of both Vale and Atlas, as well as official portraits of all 15 of the volunteer firefighters who had made the ultimate sacrifice. Any and all firefighters, police officers, and members of the Valeanian and Atlesian military, past and present, saluted both caskets as they went past.

Team RWBY, minus a still-hospitalized Blake, went past them together, led by Ruby. Whitley also accompanied Weiss. As they went past, he said to her, "Just as I was finally getting to know my father and my oldest sister, they're both gone."

Weiss wrapped an arm around him and said, "It hurts." Then, when they got to the caskets, Weiss saluted both of them. However, she soon found herself unable to hold it in any longer, and she broke her salute to cover her mouth as tears streamed down her face. "Vater... Schwester..." She was then helped along by Whitley after he saluted both caskets too.

After everyone took positions, lined up in front of the caskets, Weiss led the bi-national honor guard from this point forward. She turned to the guard and said, "Lift the flags." Immediately, 8 Atlesian soldiers and 8 Valeanian soldiers lifted and unfurled the flags on both coffins with precision. She then marched over to a 7-man firing squad (4 Valeanian, 3 Atlesian), standing at attention right behind them. "Firing Guard, Attention!" Immediately, all 7 stood at attention. "Ready!" All began to ready themselves to fire. "Aim!" All aimed their rifles to the sky. "Fire!"

All 7 then fired a single volley of shots. "Fire!" Another loud volley followed. "Fire!" The final volley then rang through the air. "Present... Arms!" All 7 then placed their rifles on their side and stood at attention again. Everyone standing in the lines opposite of the caskets also saluted as well.

Then, a Valeanian soldier on a set of bagpipes began playing the song "Going Home." It was required by law to be used for the funerals of military and public safety personnel. As the song continued, Weiss, saluting, began breaking down again, tears rushing down her face as she tried to compose herself. Then, the song ended, the bagpiper saluted, and a small marching band of Atlesian soldiers readied themselves. Then, the drummers of the band began playing a slow beat, followed by trumpeters and buglers forming a melody. Once the introduction was done, the drummers of the marching band, as well as all Atlesian military personnel present, began singing Atlas's military funeral song. Weiss also joined in quietly.

_Ich hatt' einen Kameraden,_  
_Einen bessern findst du nit._  
_Die Trommel schlug zum Streite,_  
_Er ging an meiner Seite_  
_In gleichem Schritt und Tritt...  
__In gleichem Schritt und Tritt...__  
_

_Eine Kugel kam geflogen:_  
_Gilt's mir oder gilt es dir?_  
_Ihn hat es weggerissen,_  
_Er liegt zu meinen Füßen_  
_Als wär's ein Stück von mir...  
__Als wär's ein Stück von mir...__  
_

_Will mir die Hand noch reichen,_  
_Derweil ich eben lad._  
_Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,_  
_Bleib du im ew'gen Leben_  
_Mein guter Kamerad!  
__Mein guter Kamerad!__  
_

Then, the soldiers holding the flags over both caskets began folding them as the heartbreakingly sad Atlesian song ended. Once all 4 were folded, a Valeanian soldier presented the two from Winter's casket to Weiss and saluted her. She saluted him back and then took both flags, holding them close to her as she walked back to the lines. Another soldier presented Hermann's flags to Whitley, who broke down into sobbing as he took both flags.

Then, as everyone in the lines put their hands down and stood at attention, Weiss radioed to Fire Alarm, "Car 5 to Fire Alarm."

"Car 5."

"Activate the Vigilant Fire Company's pager and siren tones in remembrance of all 15 of our members who gave their lives on August 23, 2021, please." Weiss could barely contain herself by the end.

"10-4."

A minute later, a dispatcher transmitted, "Standby Vigilant Fire 5." Then, as the tones of the company played out, everyone's pagers rang. Then, they heard the roar of the siren of the fire company from several blocks away as the dispatcher read outy, "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Vigilant Fire 5 for an activation of your tones in remembrance of the 15 firefighter from your company who gave their lives on August 23, 2021, at Box 99-99-134. The hearts of all in the Vale City Fire Department ache at the great loss of life, especially amongst our own, that occurred at the Union Square Centre. Let it be known that all who gave their lives did not do so in vain. May you all rest in peace and rest easy. We will take it from here. Time is 1223 hours, Dispatcher 651."

* * *

_**August 30, 2017**_

Weiss, Whitley, and Jaune had finally finished unpacking and moving furniture around at the Schnee House at around 6 P.M. They had to move all of the stuff from Weiss's apartment to the house, a large mansion located on the same street as the Vigilant Fire Company just a few blocks up that took up about two acres and included a 3-storey 30-room house with a garage, a pool, and a fenced off private cemetery.

Jaune, tired out, said to Weiss, "So, when will the apartment go up for sale?"

"I put it up now," Weiss replied to him as she drank a glass of water. "I did it all on my phone. Anyways, our room will be in my old room up on the third floor. Car 5 is parked in the garage."

Then, as she placed her glass on the table, her pager went off. She also heard Whitley's pager go off from upstairs. She yelled up to Whitley, "I'll take you to the station in Car 5!" She then gave Jaune a quick kiss goodbye.

Whitley ran down the stairs as he and Weiss both ran to the garage. They then jumped into Car 5. Weiss opened the garage door with the push of a button as she turned the car on and radioed, "Fire Alarm, Car 5 is en route."

She then drove out of the garage and onto the road, lights flashing and siren blaring. After about 2 minutes, she pulled up onto the firehouse apron and dropped Whitley off. After he left the car and ran into the station, she sped away to the call, which was for a car accident with possible entrapment.

Within 4 minutes of the call, Weiss pulled up to a two-car accident. One car had rear-ended another at an intersection, and the car that had been rear-ended had its doors jammed shut. By then, Ambulance 201 and Engine 201B were already on scene. She stepped out of the car and walked around back, grabbing her red helmet from the trunk of the car. She then went back to her car and radioed, "Fire Alarm, Car 5 is 10-84 at the accident, establishing Vigilant command."

A military firefighter said to her, "We're talking with the patient. He says he is unable to get the door opened for either him or his wife."

"Got it," Weiss replied as she grabbed her portable radio and switched it to District 2, Channel 1 Operations. She then radioed, "Car 5 to Truck 201."

"Go ahead," replied another firefighter.

"We got two patients," Weiss replied. "The military is currently grabbing their extrication tools off of their engine. I want you to grab chocks and assist."

"10-4," the firefighter replied.

Weiss then switched to District 2 Dispatch (Unit-to-Dispatch) and radioed, "Vigilant Command to Fire Alarm."

"Vigilant Command, go."

"Tone out Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad for 1 ambulance to the scene," Weiss replied. "We have two patients, both conscious with minor injuries. We're gonna need to pop the doors for them."

"10-4."

* * *

_**September 2, 2021**_

Ruby had just started a 12-hour-long duty shift from 8 in the morning to 8 at night when a fire call came in at 8:33 A.M. while she was talking to Delwyn on her cellphone. The call was for a reported structure fire in the first-due of the North Vigilant Fire Company. Penny was with her as well.

As she grabbed her gear and was about to slip her boots on, the newly-made 2nd Captain, Dafydd ap Llewelyn, told her as he went past her, "Go get in the tillerman seat of the old truck!"

"Got it," Ruby replied. This would be the first time she ever drove a tiller ladder from the rear. She put her sneakers back on and then carried her gear to the temporary Truck 201. As a driver, she did not need to have her gear on. The 69-year-old truck, though old, was very dependable. After she stuffed her boots, coat, helmet, and mask in a spare compartment below the tiller seat, she climbed aboard and sat down as the truck started up and waited for more volunteers to show up. By now, Engine 201B and Ambulance 201 had already left, and Penny had been aboard the ambulance.

For the truck, there were two seats in the front for a driver and an officer, and one seat in the rear for the tillerman. Everyone else had to ride on the side running boards and hold on. After waiting three and a half minutes, Truck 201 pulled out of the station with 10 firefighters on board. As the truck turned to the right, Ruby steered to the left, since the tillerman's steering wheel had to be turned to the opposite direction of where the driver wanted to go.

As Truck 201 sped down the busy streets of Vale's 2nd District, Ruby smiled and said to herself, "This is fuckin' awesome!" She was clearly having a good time driving the tiller ladder to the call. She even waved to a few people on the sidewalk that waved back at her. Some even recognized her as the Queen-to-be and cheered, which Ruby found a little odd, but she rolled with it.

Once they pulled up at around 8:44 A.M., Ruby jumped off and grabbed her gear from the spare compartment. As she put it on, Dafydd went up to her and said, "We don't have any more packs on the truck. You'll need to grab one from Engine 201 after you help with raising the aerial ladder. By the way, you drove pretty good, Ruby."

"Thanks," Ruby replied as she fastened her helmet to her head and ran over to the ladder turntable on the truck. The fire involved an apartment on the third floor of a building and was mostly smoky, with only some flames visible from the outside. Ruby and four other firefighters, three of whom were wearing air packs, then grabbed the large hand cranks of the wooden aerial ladder and proceeded to turn them to raise the 85-foot ladder. They then grabbed another set of large hand cranks to turn the ladder. Once that was done, they grabbed the first set of hand cranks to continue raising the ladder until Dafydd, who was guiding them, gave them the order to stop. Ruby said to another firefighter, "This is tiring!"

"Tell me about it," the other firefighter replied before they all turned a third set of hand cranks to extend the ladder to one of the third floor fire escapes. Once it was in position, the three firefighters with packs took their helmets off, donned their masks, put their helmets back on, and climbed up the ladder with pike poles to begin doing truck work. Ruby looked up and said to herself, "This truck's older than everyone using it. Oh well, that's what happens when you lose all of your trucks in a major attack."


End file.
